SEOUL: Praising what he called a restart in relations with Japan and South Korea, Chinese Premier Li Qiang met their leaders for the first three-way talks in four years on Monday in Seoul, aiming at rejuvenating trade and security dialogues that have been hindered by global tensions.
Li, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will announce a joint statement covering six areas such as the economy and trade, science and technology, people to people exchanges and health & aging population according to information from Seoul officials.
According to Japanese media reports they may also agree to resume negotiations for the trilateral free trade agreement which has been stalled since 2019.
At the summit, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that Li called for the comprehensive resumption of trilateral cooperation with an open attitude transparent measures.
China’s official Xinhua news agency quoted him saying that despite major shifts globally there has not been any change in the relationship between these three countries.
“More than four years ago I believe this is both a restart as well as a new beginning,” said Li in a post on X by China’s foreign ministry.
Amid Beijing-Washington rivalry and tensions over democratically ruled Taiwan claimed by China as its own, China along with US allies South Korea and Japan is trying to manage growing distrust
In terms of defense policy toward Washington DC Yoon Suk Yeol was leaning closer to Japan while Kishida was moving closer towards ROK. This unprecedented military cooperation among these three nations marks a step forward towards great regional strategic alignment between them.
This summit comes after yesterday’s bilateral meetings of two heads with each other separately.
Diplomatic security dialogue would be resumed once again together with free trade talks;Yoon Suk Yeol agreed with Li Keqiang whereas Kishida talked about Taiwan issues and pledged himself into another round of high-level economic consultations with the Chinese premier.
Yoon also asked China to play a constructive role with its partners in North Korea (UN Security Council resolutions), which is expanding its nuclear weapons and missile arsenal, in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
The Japan Coast Guard reported on Monday that North Korea has informed Japan of its plan for launching a rocket carrying a space satellite between May 27 and June 4. It was noticed by officials from the US, Japan, South Korea during their telephonic conversations who demanded it be annulled due to using ballistic missile technology illicitly according to Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Trading relationships
Over the past decade the trade relationship among China, South Korea and Japan has been progressively more competitive.
These ties have also been tested further on account of Washington urging its allies to move supply chains for major products such as semiconductors away from China.
Nevertheless, there are no great expectations for this summit among officials and diplomats from both South Korea and Japan who say that even if there are no significant announcements made, just coming together will assist these three nations in rekindling their strained relations again.
They met in November 2019 and agreed that the liberalization would be higher than Regional Comprehensive Economic partnership (RCEP) of which their members are, and will cover goods and services trade, investment, customs, competition law, and e-commerce among others.
