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By Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL, Nov 26 (Reuters) – The foreign ministers of South Korea, China and Japan will meet in South Korea on Sunday to try to revive cooperation between the Asian neighbours and pave the way for a trilateral summit.
As China and the United States try to mend strained relations, they added at a summit this month between Presidents Xi Jinping and Joe Biden, Beijing is concerned that Washington and its key regional allies are strengthening their tripartite partnership.
Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul had agreed to hold summits every year starting in 2008 for diplomatic and economic exchanges, but this plan was blocked by bilateral disputes and the COVID-19 pandemic. Its last trilateral leaders’ assembly was in 2019.
The three most sensible diplomats are meeting in the port city of Busan, also the first such meeting since 2019. In September, senior officials from the three countries agreed to hold a trilateral summit “at the most opportune time. “
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin met Sunday morning with his Japanese counterpart Yoko Kamikawa and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
Park and Kamikawa condemned North Korea’s release of its first spy satellite last week and agreed to step up responses to arms deals between Pyongyang and Moscow, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Spoiling the cooperative tone, Kamikawa called a South Korean injunction against Japan to compensate an organization of women forced to paint in Japanese brothels in wartime “extremely regrettable” and called on the South Korean government to take appropriate action, Japanese news firm Kyodo reported.
On Saturday, Kamikawa met with Wang and expressed hope that there will be a security discussion between Tokyo and Beijing “in the near future. “Wang is pressured by a desire for both sides to ensure they “do not pose a risk to others” and respect “each other’s valid concerns,” according to China’s Foreign Ministry.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have taken steps to repair ties broken by history and industrial disputes, and held a historic trilateral summit in August with Biden.
Wang warned in July that US efforts to improve relations with Seoul and Tokyo could simply fuel regional tensions and confrontations.
(Reporting via Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; Additional reporting via Sam Nussey in Tokyo; Editing via William Mallard)