A White House official has hinted at a possible summit among the United States, South Korea and Japan within this year. 

Mira Rapp-Hooper, the National Security Council Senior Director for East Asia and Oceania, mentioned the possibility in her remarks at an event hosted by the Hudson Institute think tank on Thursday, U.S. time. 

In the discussion titled “One Year after Camp David,” Rapp-Hooper said that the U.S. will continue efforts to build the trilateral relations into long-term strategic relations, which include another trilateral summit before the end of the year. 

At the Camp David summit last year, the U.S. reaffirmed its extended deterrence commitments to South Korea and Japan, and the leaders of the three nations expressed their willingness to expand cooperation on various issues, including economic security.

Regarding Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s decision to not seek another term, the White House official said that political change is inevitable, but the three nations are all vibrant democratic states. 

She expressed confidence in the trilateral cooperation, saying that the three nations worked on ways to institutionalize their cooperation last year, and that Washington believes it can withstand change in the long term.