Top defense officials of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan have agreed to conduct the second Freedom Edge combined multi-domain exercise in the near future.

The defense ministry said the agreement came during the 15th Defense Trilateral Talks(DTT) held in Seoul on Tuesday.

South Korea was represented by Deputy Minister for National Defense Policy Cho Chang-rae, the U.S. by Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Cara Abercrombie and Japan by Director General for Defense Policy Taro Yamato. 

The three officials assessed that the Freedom Edge exercise, which was executed for the first time in June, contributed to defending freedom, peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region by boosting interoperability among the three nations.

The assessment came after the officials shared the view that the Memorandum of Cooperation on the Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework, signed by their defense ministers in July, will institutionalize progress in the relationship and will serve as the basis to pursue trilateral security cooperation in a systematic and stable manner.

The officials also agreed to continuously seek various opportunities for three-way exercises and update the multi-year trilateral exercise plan by the end of the year.