This week the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea will take another step in the “new era of trilateral partnership” affirmed at the August 2023 Camp David meeting when officials from the three nations gather in Honolulu for a development and humanitarian response dialogue. Shared values and a shared vision of a free and open Indo- Pacific provide a strong base for these discussions.

Also part of that base is a shared recognition that the rationale for providing assistance is firmly rooted in national security: It is in the national security interest of all countries to have stable, healthy, well-educated and well-governed neighbors. When conditions are not good in the neighborhood, bad things can happen. In today’s interconnected systems, neighbors are not only those with shared borders, but live throughout the world.

Thirty-five years ago, as a special assistant in the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), I was charged with organizing the first of a series of bilateral discussions between the Japanese and U.S. aid programs, also held in Honolulu.

Since our first meetings in 1988, my Japanese counterparts and I have gone on to variety of positions, in foreign affairs, defense, civil society and national security. Each new job gave us different lenses through which to view foreign assistance, its purposes and its impacts. These perspectives further reinforced our convictions about the national security imperative for development assistance. We have seen first-hand how work in this field is not a nice thing to do, but a strategic necessity.

Development assistance helps build capacity, particularly in fragile states or sectors, by supporting good governance, rule of law, and strengthening the provision of key services from public health to transparent revenue systems. This support not only enhances the resilience within a society, but also reduces the likelihood of these threats spilling over into other countries. Shaping the environment through development programs creates the necessary space for diplomatic and other actions to take root.

However, the national security value of development assistance goes beyond the obvious support to building enforcement capacity and countering the evils of terrorism, extremism and trafficking. Today’s security challenges are broad and complex: threats to environmental security — along with food, water, cyber, data and health security — are existential security concerns for millions of people and for the governments who represent them. Building resilience to this range of security challenges is both a development mandate and a national security imperative, and provides areas ripe for expanded international cooperation.

U.S. and Japan development programs have collaborated in a variety of fields, including biodiversity conservation in the Pacific, energy development in South Asia and cybersecurity globally. Launching a trilateral assistance dialogue with the Republic of Korea opens exciting opportunities for additional areas of cooperation, particularly at a time when our understanding of security is expanding.

Whether part of the initial dialogue 35 years ago or the expanded dialogues today, development officials are not naïve. We have experienced the challenges of consistently delivering high-quality aid across the range of governments and economies that require assistance. We know that development assistance is not a panacea for national security challenges. Aid must be well-targeted and well-implemented to be effective, and do so by involving local viewpoints in the prioritization, design and operation of the programs.

Moreover, assistance must be part of a broader national security strategy that includes diplomacy, defense, and trade. On net, however, the positives of providing assistance outweigh the costs. By discussing, sharing and collaborating with each other, Japan, U.S. and Korea can strengthen capacity and build resilience, ensuring that our collective development aid contributes to a more secure world.

Lori Forman is the development adviser and a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies; she is a former assistant administrator for Asia and the Near East at the U.S. Agency for International Development. The views expressed here are her own.