U.S., South Korea, Japan Bolster Ties at Camp David Summit

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the first trilateral summit featuring the United States, Japan, and South Korea; new Chinese fiscal policies to curb deflation; and mass starvation in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

It’s time for another round of Camp David friendship bracelets. U.S. President Joe Biden invited his closest Asia-Pacific allies, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, to the historic mountain retreat on Friday for the three countries’ first standalone trilateral summit—the first time Biden has hosted foreign leaders at the symbolic negotiation site since taking office. “That venue is reserved for only the most important and significant such meetings,” one U.S. senior administration official said. “We believe this is clearly at that level.”

Numerous foreign-policy objectives were discussed at the summit—all of which centered on countering growing aggression from North Korea and China in the Indo-Pacific. Among the leaders’ biggest announcements was the establishment of a “commitment to consult” one another when crises arise. “Something that poses a threat to any one of us poses a threat to all of us,” the U.S. official said.

The leaders also announced the creation of a three-way secure hotline for crisis consulting; new intelligence-sharing pacts; a plan to hold annual military exercises, such as ballistic missile drills; and a commitment to convene their trilateral meeting on a yearly basis.

However, long-standing animosity between Japan and South Korea continues to hinder closer cooperation—such as creating a three-way mutual defense pact. Seoul still has a deep distrust of Tokyo over Japan’s 35-year occupation of the Korean Peninsula, which was plagued by forced labor and the attempted erasure of Korean culture. But “growing threats from China and North Korea are pushing Tokyo and Seoul to begin finally (maybe) burying the hatchet,” wrote FP’s Robbie Gramer and Jack Detsch in Situation Report.

Beijing and Pyongyang are far from thrilled by the summit’s efforts to curb their regional influence. Indo-Pacific experts predict North Korea will launch an intercontinental ballistic missile in the coming days to demonstrate its anger toward the Camp David meeting. China’s state media has also criticized the summit, calling it “destructive to regional security.”

• India Is Pushing Back Against China in South Asia by Derek Grossman
• China Doesn’t Compartmentalize by Taehwa Hong
• The Real Risks of Doing Business in China by Benedict Rogers

Confidence boost. China’s Securities Regulatory Commission announced new economic reforms on Friday to help “boost capital market investor confidence.” These measures include potentially extending trading hours for the country’s stock market, cutting transaction fees for brokers, and encouraging share buybacks. The decision comes just hours after China’s Central Bank took new actions to defend the strength of its currency as the yuan’s value falls.

The combined moves suggest Beijing is becoming increasingly concerned over the country’s lackluster economic performance of late. Last week, China’s National Bureau of Statistics announced the decline of consumer prices as the country is already suffering from high national debt and worrying youth unemployment numbers. As the world’s second-largest economy struggles to secure financial stability, other major global markets (and even some minor ones) could feel the spill-over effects.

Dire consequences. Without foreign aid, conditions in Ethiopia are worsening—and fast. According to the BBC, at least 1,400 people living in the country’s war-torn Tigray region have starved to death since the United Nations World Food Program suspended food supplies to the region in March. The U.N. body’s decision to halt aid came after an investigation found that Tigrayan authorities were stealing the grain and reselling it for personal gain; in one Tigray town, enough food to feed 134,000 people for one month was found for sale at local markets.

The agency announced in early August that it would begin to slowly resume operations in Tigray via small-scale operations. The United States’ own suspension of food aid to the country, however, will continue. Rights activists have called the decision immoral, as the region is already battling mass internal violence, poverty, and corruption, and U.S. members of Congress have implored the Biden administration to resume providing assistance.

An F-16-shaped present. After months of requests for greater support, Washington finally relented to Ukrainian pleas and approved sending F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv as soon as pilot training is completed. The decision, announced on Thursday, will help Ukrainian troops fight Russian forces in its slow-going counteroffensive. The F-16s will be sent to Ukraine from the Netherlands and Denmark.

Pilot training will commence later this month in Denmark, which has also led efforts to maintain aircraft technology and support staff as well as pushed for Ukraine’s ownership of such weapons. The Netherlands, meanwhile, stated in May that it was “seriously considering” giving Ukraine its own stockpile of F-16s—a total of 24 operational aircraft and another 18 F-16s for sale—as it phases them out of its own military.

Israel on Thursday clinched its largest-ever defense deal with Germany. How much is that deal worth?

A. $2.8 billion
B. $3.5 billion
C. $4.1 billion
D. $5.2 billion

There must be something in the water. Schools in the Scottish town of Inverclyde welcomed 17 sets of twins on Friday. Dubbed “Twinverclyde,” this is the largest number of two-set siblings starting classes since 2015, when 19 sets of twins began primary school. That brings the total number of pairs to 147 sets since 2013. The Parent Trap, meet your match.

B. $3.5 billion

The deal comes as Western nations search for ways to continue arming Ukraine as national weapons stockpiles run low, a topic Emma Ashford and Matthew Kroenig discussed on this week’s It’s Debatable.

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