South Korea, Japan, China Confirmed to Meet Next Week for First Time Since 2019

By Jose Resurreccion

May 23, 2024 04:13 AM EDT

South Korea, Japan, China Confirmed to Meet Next Week for First Time Since 2019 — Visitors wearing traditional Hanbok clothes pose for photos at the Gyeongbokgung Palace grounds in Seoul on October 23, 2023.
(Photo : ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images)

South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and Chinese Premier Li Qiang are scheduled to hold their first trilateral diplomatic talks in five years.

According to a statement from Yoon's office on Thursday (May 23), the three leaders will participate in a tripartite summit on Monday (May 27) in Seoul. This will be the first such summit in Seoul since 2019 when it was held in China.

The Associated Press reported that the three leaders would hold separate bilateral talks among themselves the day before on Sunday (May 26).

The three countries were supposed to hold regular meetings among the leaders every year, but the summit has been suspended since the last time it happened in 2019.

The upcoming talks would also be the first time Yoon would retain his influence for the remaining three years of his term after his party suffered a major defeat in last month's general elections.

Issues with South Korea-Japan-China Trilateral Talks

Boosting cooperation, mainly an economic one, often derails due to several issues, including historical disputes between the three countries that can be traced back to the Second World War, when Japan displayed its aggression.

Another factor that affects such conversations is the strategic competition between China and the United States, from military capabilities to economic and technological influence.

Bloomberg reported that the summit would also highlight the balancing act faced by South Korea and Japan, which see China as a trade partner and the US as their strategic defense ally.

Kyodo News additionally reported that, after the summit, Yoon and Kishida could fly to the US in the next few months to possibly hold a summit with US President Joe Biden, similar to the one between the US, Japan, and the Philippines. A tentative date for such a summit is in July, on the sidelines of a scheduled NATO summit in Washington.

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