South Korea: South Korea has welcomed senior diplomats from China and Japan for a trilateral meeting. The move is widely considered an attempt to ease China’s concerns about Seoul and Tokyo’s security ties with the United States as well as restart a long-suspended trilateral leaders’ summit.
South Korea has been trying to deepen ties with the US and Japan amid North Korea’s regular tests of banned weapons and closer relationships with countries such as Russia.
In August 2023, South Korea, Japan, and the US hailed a “new milestone” in cooperation at a historic summit in Washington, DC. The close allies have also held regular military drills.
The visit involved a meeting attended by South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Mr. Chung Byung-won, Japanese Senior Deputy Foreign Minister Mr. Takehiro Funakoshi, and China’s Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Mr. Nong Rong. The three earlier held talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Mr. Park Jin, who told them to “work closely together” and “produce tangible outcomes, which will produce benefits that can be felt by the people of the three countries.”
Recently, Mr. Wang Wenbin, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, told a briefing that the three countries were “close neighbours as well as important cooperative partners” and that “strengthening trilateral cooperation served their common interests.”
The first three-way summits between the nations were held in 2008 but were suspended in 2019 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and a bitter dispute between Tokyo and Seoul over issues dating from Japanese colonial rule and World War II. China is nuclear-armed North Korea’s most important ally and trading partner. The country recently sent senior officials to attend Pyongyang’s military parades.
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