The White House says Camp David was chosen as the venue for the three-way summit among leaders of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan due to its history of hosting of summit meetings and significant foreign policy conversations.

John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, provided the explanation in a virtual press briefing on Wednesday when asked about the selection of the presidential retreat as the site of the three-nation summit next Friday.

Kirby added that U.S. President Joe Biden is looking forward to hosting President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida at Camp David for what Washington believes will be “a discussion of historic proportions” in terms of the importance of the three nations’ relationship to the Indo-Pacific region and to the world as a whole.

On what the three leaders will discuss at the summit, Kirby said only that there will be many issues on the agenda.

The upcoming summit is the first stand-alone summit among the three leaders that is not taking place on the margins of a multilateral conference.

Since taking office, Biden has visited Camp David some 30 times but he has never invited foreign leaders to the presidential retreat before.