WASHINGTON – The top leaders of Japan and South Korea met Friday with President Biden at Camp David for an unprecedented three-way summit that outraged Chinese officials.

Biden, 80, welcomed South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the presidential retreat in rural Maryland around 11:30 a.m., asking them, “Ready to have some lunch?”

The president twice did not respond to shouted questions by reporters asking what message China should receive from the summit.

The trio were expected to discuss Beijing’s growing military threat, invasive surveillance efforts, and predatory practices in East Asia, as well as North Korea’s nuclearization.

“It’s not only the first summit I’ve hosted at Camp David,” Biden said in his opening remarks. “It’s the first-ever standalone summit with the leaders of Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United States.”

The historic trilateral meeting involving former adversaries annoyed the Chinese government, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin telling reporters Friday that the meeting represents a desire to turn the Western Pacific into “a wrestling ground for geopolitical competition again.”

“No country should seek its own security at the expense of other countries’ security interests and regional peace and stability,” Wang said. “… Attempts to cobble together various exclusionary groupings and bring bloc confrontation and military blocs into the Asia-Pacific are not going to get support and will only be met with vigilance and opposition from regional countries.”

But Biden said the summit was not about China, though he noted during a joint news conference that the common adversary “obviously came up.” 

“Not to say we don’t share concerns about the economic coercion or heightened tensions caused by China, but this summit was really about our relationship with each other, and deepening cooperation across an entire range of issues,” he said.

The three leaders specifically called out Beijing in a joint statement issued after the talks, criticizing its island-building in the Western Pacific and South China Sea, as well as “dangerous use of coast guard and maritime militia vessels and coercive activities.”

“Regarding the dangerous and aggressive behavior supporting unlawful maritime claims that we have recently witnessed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the South China Sea, we strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the waters of the Indo-Pacific,” they wrote.

The communique also chastised North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and recent missile launches as well as Russia’s war on Ukraine, while urging China to maintain peaceful relations with Taiwan.

The summit is intended to be the first in a continuing series of meetings between the three leaders, who China has accused of trying to create a “NATO for the Pacific” – a term National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan rebuked on Friday.

“The work that we are doing with these two countries is not new,” he said. “What is new is that we are now stitching all of that work together to try to enhance regional stability and security.”

As a result of the summit, the three leaders pledged to have their top diplomats, finance and commerce ministers, defense leaders and national security advisors meet “at least annually.”

It represents a big step for relations between Tokyo and Seoul, which have been tense for decades after Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula in 1910 and held it through the end of World War II.

Japan and South Korea established diplomatic ties in 1965, but hard feelings remain — most notably over Japan’s treatment of Korean “comfort women” during the colonial period and Tokyo’s refusal to apologize or pay reparations.

While the US has formal alliances with both South Korea and Japan, the latter two are not allied with each other.

Lingering tensions have complicated American diplomatic and military efforts in the region.

For example, when US forces conduct troop exercises with both nations during times of heightened political stress, Americans have had to function as the middleman in communications between their allies.

Biden on Friday thanked Yoon and Kishida for their “political courage” in attending the summit together – a nod to their nations’ historically strained relations.

“Our countries are stronger and the world will be safer as we stand together, and I know this is a belief we all three share,” he said. “You stepped up to do the hard work – I would argue, historic work – to forge a foundation from which we can face the future together.”

Later, Yoon addressed the longstanding divide between Seoul and Tokyo, acknowledging that “of course there’s public opinion that is opposed to the government measures” bringing the nations closer, but said improving the relationship is critical to future prosperity.

“This is something we need to continue working on,” he admitted.

Lingering tensions have complicated American diplomatic and military efforts in the region.

For example, when US forces conduct troop exercises with both nations during times of heightened political stress, Americans have had to function as the middleman in communications between their allies.

As a result of the summit, the three leaders committed to conducting annual military exercises together and to activate “a data-sharing mechanism to exchange real-time missile warning” when launches are detected from North Korea.

Yoon said the three nations “must tighten our solidarity” and create “more robust institutional foundations” amid rising threats in the Western Pacific.

“Challenges that threaten regional security must be addressed by us building a stronger commitment to working together,” he said. “Today will be remembered as a historic day where we establish the firm institutional basis and commitment to the trilateral partnership.”

Beijing has repeatedly expressed concerns over the improving ties between Japan and South Korea, with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi last month dramatically telling attendees from both nations at a forum in Qingdao that they could “never become a Westerner.”

“No matter how blond you dye your hair, how sharp you shape your nose, you can never become a European or American, you can never become a Westerner,” Wang said. “We must know where our roots lie.”

In an apparent attempt to convince Tokyo and Seoul not to isolate Beijing, Wang Wenbin on Friday encouraged the group to work toward peace in the Pacific.

“In a world of change and disorder on the security front, all parties should act on the vision of a community of shared security for mankind, practice true multilateralism, and jointly address various security challenges,” he said.

“The international community has its fair judgment on who is stoking conflicts and exacerbating tensions,” he added, apparently referencing the United States.

Still, Sullivan said that “this summit today, this partnership, is not against anyone.”