Chinese, Japanese premiers arrive in South Korea for trilateral summit
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Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived in Seoul for a trilateral summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, focusing on economic cooperation.
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Chinese Premier Li Qiang, second right, is welcomed by South Korean 1st Vice Minister Kim Hong-kyun, as the premier arrives for a trilateral meeting, at the Seoul airport in Seongnam, South Korea, May 26, 2024. (AP)
The premiers of China and Japan have arrived in Seoul for their first trilateral summit in five years, focusing primarily on economic issues rather than sensitive geopolitical matters.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are set to meet with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol separately this afternoon in the South Korean capital.
On Monday, the three leaders will convene for a trilateral meeting, marking the first such encounter in half a decade. This hiatus was partly due to the pandemic and the long-strained relations between Seoul and Tokyo.
President Yoon, who assumed office in 2022, has aimed to mend historical grievances with Japan, its former colonizer. Before departing for Seoul, Kishida emphasized the changed regional and global landscapes since the last summit, calling the new meeting "highly significant."
"I would like to have an honest conversation with President Yoon Suk Yeol and Premier Li Qiang, and agree on working-level cooperation in a forward-looking manner," Kishida stated, expressing hopes for the meeting's success and a revival of three-way diplomacy.
Improving relations with China
Yoon is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with Li, who is visiting South Korea for the first time since taking office in March 2023, followed by a meeting with Kishida. The three leaders will also share a dinner this evening.
This comes as Seoul and Tokyo, key regional security allies of Washington, seek to improve relations and trade while easing tensions with Beijing.
"The importance of cooperation between the three nations, which account for 20 percent of the world's population and trade, and 25 percent of total GDP, cannot be overemphasized," South Korea's Hankook Ilbo noted in an editorial.
"It is of utmost importance that the three nations have the willingness to overcome differences of views," the daily said.
Postponed summit
According to Yonhap, the last summit held between the three countries was in the Chinese city of Chengdu in December 2019.
The following summit was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the deterioration of relations between Japan and South Korea "over the issue of compensating Korean victims of forced labor during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula," it pointed out.
According to Seoul's figures, Japan forced some 780,000 Koreans into labor, not including women forced into sexual servitude, during its colonial rule.
Survivor groups have long demanded direct payments and an apology from Japan, which insists that the matter is closed according to a 1965 treaty that restored relations. As part of the treaty, Japan provided $800 million in grants and cheap leans to South Korea as reparations.
But hopes for reviving the bilateral relations between Seoul and Tokyo and consequently the trilateral summit were boosted after South Korea said it plans to take money from major local companies that benefited from the 1965 treaty and use it to compensate victims.
In late September 2023, Chinese and Japanese senior officials were hosted in South Korea and held a trilateral meeting along with South Korean officials, aimed at reassuring Beijing about the increased cooperation between Japan, South Korea, and the United States, and paving the way for the resumption of the aforementioned trilateral summit.
