South Korea Denies Reports On Alleged Invitation By US To Join Quad Security Dialogue

SEOUL (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th April, 2021) The United States has not tried to recruit South Korea into the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), which also includes Australia, Japan and India, the press service of the South Korean Presidency said on Monday.

On Sunday, Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had urged Seoul to join Quad during a trilateral meeting with his counterparts from Japan and South Korea in early April. The South Korean government reportedly refrained from giving any response.

"This is not true," the press service said, as quoted by South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo, adding "The news piece is extremely inaccurate and does not reflect the content of the negotiations.

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The presidential press service described it as "regrettable" that an article like that had appeared in media.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry, in turn, said that it did not receive any official requests from Washington to join the group, as cited in the report.

In late March, US State Secretary Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin paid a visit to South Korea. South Korean media interpreted the high-level visit as a sign of the formation of an anti-Chinese coalition, noting that Washington was seeking to expand Quad's role.

South Korea has so far not explicitly stated any official position on whether or not it intended to join Quad.