SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The leaders of China and Japan arrived in Seoul for separate talks with the South Korean president on Sunday, a day before their first summit. Trilateral Meeting It’s been more than four years.
No big announcements are expected from Monday’s trilateral meeting between South Korea, China and Japan. But just the resumption of top-level trilateral talks is a good sign, as the three Asian neighbors are keen to reach an agreement on the issue. Improve relationships.
The tripartite summit was meant to be held annually since the first meeting in 2008. However, the meetings have been stalled since the last meeting in December 2019. Chengdu, China This is due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the complex relationship between the three countries.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are scheduled to hold bilateral talks with South Korean President Yun Seok-yeo after arriving in Seoul on Sunday to discuss ways to boost cooperation and other issues, according to South Korean officials. Li and Kishida are also expected to hold bilateral talks.
Yoon, Ri and Kishida will hold a tripartite meeting on Monday to discuss cooperation in six specific areas, including people-to-people exchanges, climate change, trade, health issues, technology and disaster response, according to South Korea’s presidential office.
Sensitive topics such as North Korea’s nuclear program and China’s claim to self-rule Taiwan The territorial dispute in the South China Sea is not on the official agenda, but some experts say the three leaders are likely to discuss North Korea’s nuclear program, which poses a major security threat to South Korea and Japan, though it is unclear whether and to what extent their discussions will be made public.
The three neighbors are important trading partners and cooperation between them is key to promoting peace and prosperity in the region. Together, they account for about 25 percent of the world’s gross domestic product. However, they have repeatedly been embroiled in fierce disputes over a range of historical and diplomatic issues stemming from Japan’s wartime atrocities. In recent years, the rise of China and U.S. pressure to strengthen the Asian alliance have also had a major impact on the trilateral relations.
South Korea and Japan are both vibrant democracies and key U.S. military allies in the region, but their relations have suffered major setbacks over disputes over the past few years. Korean forced laborers The two countries maintained friendly relations during the Japanese colonial period from 1910 to 1945. Since last year, relations between the two countries have improved dramatically. Yoon took a big step The aim is to overcome historical grudges and address common challenges such as the North Korean nuclear threat, intensifying conflict between the U.S. and China, and supply chain vulnerabilities.
Since 2022, North Korea has continued to engage in unprecedented provocative behavior. Weapon Testing The goal is to develop powerful nuclear missiles capable of striking key facilities on the U.S. mainland, South Korea and Japan. In response, South Korea, Japan and the United States have expanded their tripartite security partnership, a move that has drawn criticism from China and North Korea.
South Korea, Japan and the United States hope that China, North Korea’s main ally and economic conduit, will use its influence to persuade the North to abandon its nuclear ambitions, but China is believed to have covertly supported the impoverished North.
Experts say South Korea, China and Japan now share the need for improved relations. South Korea and Japan want better ties with China because it is their largest trading partner. China, on the other hand, likely believes that greater cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the United States would hurt its own national interests.
Before departing from Haneda Airport, Foreign Minister Kishida said it was “very meaningful” for the leaders of the three countries to meet in one place to discuss areas of trilateral cooperation and other regional and international issues.
South Korean and Chinese officials also expressed hope that the tripartite talks would strengthen trilateral cooperation.
China, meanwhile, has always sent its prime minister, the country’s number two, to the trilateral summits since the first one in 2008. Observers say China has previously argued that under the then collective leadership system, the prime minister was primarily in charge of economic issues and therefore best suited to attend meetings focused on economic issues.
But they say China may face further demands for President Xi Jinping to attend as he consolidates power in his own hands and ignores norms of collective leadership.
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Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
