At the China-Japan-South Korea Summit, Beijing stressed that the three countries' mission of safeguarding peace in the region remains unchanged, while calling for trilateral cooperation. For Seoul and Tokyo, the Summit is an opportunity for the two countries to get closer to Beijing's stance on many issues considered thorny.
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| (From left to right) Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the China-Japan-South Korea Summit press conference on May 27 in Seoul. (Source: AFP) |
Effective bilateral negotiations
The China-Japan-South Korea summit in Seoul (May 26-27) is attracting international attention. The AP news agency assessed that although no major announcements are expected from the meeting, observers said that the resumption of top-level talks between the three Northeast Asian neighbors is a good sign and shows that the parties intend to improve relations.
Ahead of the trilateral meeting on May 27, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held bilateral talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio on May 26.
Additionally, on the same day, Japanese leaders also had a bilateral meeting with Chinese leaders.
According to AP, in private meetings with the Chinese Prime Minister, the leaders of Japan and South Korea raised many "thorny" topics that were not on the official agenda of the trilateral conference, such as North Korea, Taiwan (China), the East Sea...
After meeting with Premier Li Qiang, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio told reporters that he expressed deep concern about the situation in the South China Sea.
For his part, according to the South Korean Presidential Office, in a private meeting with Mr. Li Qiang, Mr. Yoon Suk Yeol asked China, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, to contribute to promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula.
The South Korean presidential office also said that Mr. Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese leader Kishida Fumio expressed concerns about North Korea's nuclear program in a private meeting and agreed to strengthen cooperation with the United States.
South Korea, Japan and the United States have long called on China to use its leverage to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Economy is high on the agenda
The three leaders also discussed ways to strengthen cooperation in the economy and other areas. The leaders of South Korea and China agreed to launch a new Korea-China dialogue channel with the participation of senior diplomats and defense officials in mid-June.
South Korea and China also agreed to restart talks to expand their free trade agreement and “reactivate” currently suspended bodies on personnel exchanges, investment and other issues, according to Yoon Suk Yeol’s office.
In recent years, China has been unhappy with the use of export controls by the United States and its allies, including South Korea and Japan, targeting China's semiconductor industry.
In addition, in a private meeting between Mr. Kishida Fumio and Mr. Li Qiang, the two leaders affirmed that Japan and China will strive to make progress in various fields to promote mutually beneficial relations.
Mr. Kishida also said that when meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, the two sides agreed to further strengthen the bilateral relationship which has warmed significantly.
The three Asian countries are important trading partners and their cooperation is key to promoting peace and prosperity in the region. Together, they account for about 25% of global gross domestic product.
However, the rise of China and America's efforts to strengthen Asian alliances have also had a significant impact on the trilateral relationship in recent years.
Experts say South Korea, China and Japan share a common need to improve relations. South Korea and Japan want better relations with China, which is their largest trading partner. For its part, China may believe that further strengthening of South Korea-Japan-US relations would harm its national interests.
"New Beginning"
At the summit on May 27, the phrase "new beginning" was emphasized by the leaders of the three countries, calling for cooperation between the three countries, promoting multilateralism, and opposing protectionism.
Economy and trade are the topics with the greatest potential for cooperation between China, Japan and South Korea, in the context that the three countries still have many differences in other areas such as politics and security.
According to Mr. Li Qiang, the resumption of the trilateral meeting between the powerful economies in Northeast Asia is not only a restart, but also creates a new beginning for cooperation.
"With China, South Korea and Japan, our close relations will not change, the spirit of cooperation achieved through crisis response will not change, and the mission of safeguarding regional peace and stability will not change," Li Qiang stressed.
The atmosphere of the summit was "very constructive," a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said on May 27.
International media said that the focus of the meeting in Seoul will be the resumption of negotiations on a trilateral free trade agreement, which stopped in 2019 when the summit was interrupted.
In Northeast Asia as well as the international environment in general, China remains an important economic partner for Japan and South Korea. This is the basis for the three countries to seek areas of cooperation, not only in the economic field. In addition to the Ukraine issue, both South Korea and Japan now hope that China will have a say in handling the North Korean nuclear issue - a close security interest of these two countries.
US and North Korea reactions
The US and North Korea are the parties with great interest in this China-Japan-Korea summit.
The Washington Post believes that China is trying to pull Japan and South Korea closer, especially when witnessing these two countries further tightening relations with the US.
There has been a major shift in the geopolitical landscape among these four countries in recent times. China has seen Japan and South Korea seek to bridge their differences and move towards a stronger US-Japan-South Korea trilateral cooperation framework.
American experts seem to underestimate the possibility that China will actually be able to "pull" Japan and South Korea to its side.
"The opportunity to cooperate with China, especially on economic issues, is very attractive to both (Japan and South Korea), but it will not change the larger context of deep concerns about China's intentions and actions, as well as the common interest in closely engaging with the United States and with each other," Mr. Christ Johnstone, former director for East Asia at the US National Security Council, told the Washington Post .
However, more or less, American analysts such as Daniel Sneider (in charge of East Asia policy at Stanford University) still see this as a reminder to Washington that their allies must also have their own interests.
On the North Korean side, according to Japanese media on May 27, North Korea informed Tokyo of its plan to launch its second military reconnaissance satellite on June 4.
The North Korean announcement identified three danger zones near the Korean peninsula and the Philippine island of Luzon where missile debris could fall, the Japan Coast Guard said.
The announcement came just ahead of a trilateral summit. The Japanese Foreign Ministry said that officials from the United States, Japan and South Korea had held a telephone conversation to discuss the event, and shared the view that North Korea's satellite launch using ballistic missile technology was considered a violation of United Nations resolutions.
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