The U.S. State Department said the top diplomats of the U.S. and Japan discussed trilateral coordination involving Seoul, Washington and Tokyo. 

Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement on Wednesday that in a phone call, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi reaffirmed the strength of the U.S.-Japan alliance as the cornerstone of peace, security and prosperity essential to a free and open Indo-Pacific. 

He said the two officials also welcomed further regional cooperation, including through U.S.-Japan-ROK trilateral coordination and the Quad.

The remarks come as relations between South Korea and Japan are at a decades low following court decisions in Seoul ordering Japanese companies to compensate Korean wartime forced labor victims. Relations were further exacerbated by Tokyo's retaliatory export curbs.