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The Yomiuri Shimbun A U.S. Navy CMV-22 Osprey transport aircraft lands on the USS George Washington aircraft carrier on Thursday morning.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
14:56 JST, November 15, 2024
Japan, the United States and South Korea have this week been conducting a trilateral joint exercise called Freedom Edge. The three nations aim to firmly establish interoperability and institutionalize cooperation among the Self-Defense Forces, U.S. military and South Korean military as they prepare for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump to take office. Trump has been skeptical of such multilateral cooperation.
As China increasingly flexes its military muscles and North Korea accelerates its nuclear and missile development, Japan, the United States and South Korea are shoring up their ability to jointly respond to security challenges in the region, including through the sharing of information.
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel insisted Thursday that this edition of Freedom Edge would not be the last. Speaking at a press conference on board the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington after observing the exercises, Rahm said Freedom Edge had already become an institution and was being conducted in conjunction with the strategic objectives of the three nations, not their three leaders.
At a time when the security environment in East Asia is becoming increasingly severe, Rahm apparently emphasized that the shift toward greater trilateral cooperation that has been promoted by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden will not change, even if the leaders of the three nations do.
According to the Defense Ministry, the Freedom Edge exercise aimed to improve the three nations’ capabilities in multiple domains, such as the response to cyberattacks, ballistic missile attacks, air defense combat and anti-surface combat. An SDF E-767 airborne warning and control aircraft equipped with advanced radar, Aegis vessels from the three nations and F-35 stealth fighters possessing sophisticated network capabilities participated in the exercise, which had a focus on information sharing.
China has been stepping up its hegemonic actions, and in August a Chinese military aircraft intruded into Japanese airspace for the first time. China also possesses antiship ballistic missiles dubbed “aircraft carrier killers.” North Korea, which has been bolstering military cooperation with Russia, in October fired an intercontinental ballistic missile that flew to a higher altitude and for a longer duration than any of its previous attempts. Dealing with these multiple threats is a matter of shared urgency for Japan, the United States and South Korea.
The leaders of the three nations agreed during summit talks in August 2023 to conduct the Freedom Edge exercise. This month’s iteration was the second such exercise, following one conducted in June. The three nations in December also started operating a system that allows them to immediately share information on North Korea’s missile launches.
“These joint exercises are steadily improving coordination among the three nations,” a senior Defense Ministry official said.
The official added that each of the three countries hope that normalizing cooperation at the front-line level will lead to the exercises being continued.
