Indo-Pacific

Aug. 21 (ZFJ) — President Joe Biden, South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol, and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to increase defense and economic cooperation among their countries at a Camp David summit on Friday, Aug. 18. This meeting is the first-ever standalone summit between the leaders of Japan, South Korea, and the United States. Japan and South Korea continue to have disputes over former Imperial Japan’s colonial rule from 1910-1945.

July 24 (ZFJ) — The U.S. Navy commissioned Independence-class littoral combat ship USS Canberra (LCS 30) at the Royal Australian Navy’s Fleet Base East in Sydney on Saturday, July 22, marking the first time a U.S. ship entered service at a foreign port. It is the second American ship named for Australia’s capital. The first was a Baltimore-heavy class cruiser, renamed in honor of the Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra, which was lost at the Battle of Savo Island in WWII when defending U.