President Donald Trump on 7 July dispatched formal letters to three Asian governments, according to public notices released the same day. The correspondence was addressed separately to the president of the Republic of Korea, the prime minister of Japan and the president of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. One of the communications was described as a "trade letter" to South Korea, suggesting economic issues were a focus of at least part of the outreach. The White House has not released the full text of any of the letters or detailed their specific requests, leaving the scope of the initiative unclear.