The NATO summit held in Ankara witnessed a new energy cooperation between the US and its two key Asian allies. The US, Japan and South Korea signed a trilateral framework agreement to accelerate the deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs) in other countries.
According to the US State Department, the cooperation will initially focus on the Indo-Pacific region. The memorandum of understanding aims to combine the complementary advantages of the three countries in the civilian nuclear energy field to support common security interests and meet the energy security needs of partner countries.
The agreement aims to reduce project development risks by promoting fleet deployment models, achieve economies of scale, stimulate private investment, simplify licensing processes and optimize supply chains.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that small modular reactors are the future of energy. Rubio stated that the technology offers "a safe, efficient and economically advantageous solution."
Rubio emphasized the importance of energy security, recalling that supply disruptions during the US-Iran war in the Strait of Hormuz severely affected global energy flows.
The US has allocated over $10 million to the State Department's FIRST program to support the safe deployment of SMRs in the Indo-Pacific region.
Meanwhile, GE Vernova, Hitachi, Samsung C&T and SGE have decided to collaborate on deploying the BWRX-300 small modular reactor across Europe.
The NATO summit in Ankara brings together leaders of the 32 member states and key partners. The summit addresses Europe's defense capacity, NATO defense spending targets, military modernization and continued support for Ukraine.
South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Japan are not NATO members but have been invited as guests to the summits since 2022. The gathering in Ankara is Turkey's second NATO summit after hosting the 2004 Istanbul summit.
