Ankara: The top diplomats of South Korea, the United States, and Japan signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a framework for trilateral cooperation on accelerating small modular reactor (SMR) deployments in other countries in the Indo-Pacific, the State Department announced. South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi inked the MOU on the sidelines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Ankara, Turkey.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the MOU outlines opportunities for the three countries, which possess complementary advantages in the civil nuclear field, to encourage mutually beneficial cooperation among their respective nuclear industries. This framework aims to foster fleet deployment models that de-risk project development, achieve economies of scale, catalyze private investment, streamline licensing processes, and optimize supply chains. The department emphasized that a coordinated trilateral approach positions South Korean, U.S., and Japanese firms to provide regional partners with more competitive alternatives to meet their growing energy demands while upholding the highest standards of nuclear safety, security, and nonproliferation.
To support this initiative, the U.S. is committing more than US$10 million in new funding for a State Department program to provide technical support to Indo-Pacific countries for deploying safe, secure, and reliable nuclear energy. The funds will advance SMR project development activities and establish an SMR regional training hub for workforce development. At the signing ceremony, Rubio expressed optimism about trilateral cooperation on SMRs through the MOU, stating that the agreement allows for joint work on small modular reactors, which he described as the future of energy generation.
Cho highlighted the SMR sector as one of many areas where the three countries can collaborate to address shared challenges. Motegi hailed the MOU as a significant achievement for trilateral cooperation and noted the improvement in relations between South Korea and Japan, emphasizing the importance of their alliance. He acknowledged the historical tensions stemming from Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula but expressed satisfaction with the progress made in recent years. Motegi underscored the critical nature of the bilateral relationship between Japan and South Korea and the efforts made to strengthen it, recognizing both countries as close and important allies of the United States.