The leaders of the Joint Chiefs of Staff(JSC) of South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet next week to discuss trilateral military cooperation. 

According to the South Korean military on Thursday, JSC Chairman Kim Myung-soo and his American and Japanese counterparts, Dan Caine and Yoshihide Yoshida, will hold the Trilateral Chiefs of Defense meeting next Thursday and Friday in Seoul.

It marks the first visit to the country by the U.S. JCS chief since Caine’s predecessor Charles Q. Brown visited Seoul in November 2023. 

Caine’s visit comes amid U.S. calls for its allies to increase defense spending to five percent of their gross domestic product.

A military official in Seoul, however, said defense cost-sharing arrangements between Seoul and Washington will not be among the topics discussed at the meeting, adding that the discussions will be limited to trilateral military cooperation and responses to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.