[1/3]South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Chung Byung-won, Japan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Funakoshi Takehiro and China’s Vice Foreign Minister Nong Rong pose for photos during their meeting in Seoul, South Korea, September 26, 2023. Purchase license rights. Read more
SEOUL, Sept 26 (Portal) – South Korea hosted senior diplomats from China and Japan on Tuesday for a rare trilateral meeting aimed at easing Beijing’s concerns about closer cooperation between the two U.S. allies and Washington.
The meeting is partly aimed at setting the stage for the resumption of the tripartite summits between the countries’ heads of state and government, which last took place in 2019. These talks were suspended due to legal, diplomatic and trade disputes between Seoul and Tokyo over issues affecting Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of Korea.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have since taken steps to improve relations, holding a historic trilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in August where the three pledged to increase cooperation, including on defense and economic security.
A senior South Korean government official said China has proactively sought trilateral cooperation and arranged meetings since relations between Seoul and Beijing deteriorated in 2017 over the deployment of a U.S. THAAD missile defense system in South Korea.
“I’m sure there will be some unease on their side about our increasingly close trilateral security partnerships with the United States and Japan,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation. “The view there seems to be that they need to properly manage bilateral relations with us, as they have seen how their THAAD responses have backfired and inflamed anti-China sentiment to serious levels.”
Beijing will most likely seek to use trilateral trade ties to counterbalance the U.S. friend-shoring strategy, promote people-to-people exchanges and improve communication and dialogue with Seoul and Tokyo on security and defense issues, Tong said Zhao, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Institute based in the USA.
Japan and South Korea have an interest in avoiding conflict and maintaining a stable security relationship with China and are interested in Beijing helping slow, if not stop, North Korea’s extensive nuclear development program, he added.
“These shared interests open new avenues for strategic communication, trust building and crisis prevention measures,” Zhao said.
The trilateral summits have traditionally included the Chinese premier, but South Korea is also pushing for a separate visit by President Xi Jinping.
South Korea is hosting three-way meetings this year and proposed a trilateral summit in December during talks on Tuesday, Japanese broadcaster TBS reported.
The latest meeting was attended by South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Chung Byung-won, Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Takehiro Funakoshi and Nong Rong, China’s Deputy Foreign Minister.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a briefing on Monday that China, Japan and South Korea are close neighbors and important cooperation partners, and strengthening trilateral cooperation serves their common interests.
Reporting by Josh Smith and Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; Additional reporting by Liz Lee in Beijing; Writing by Josh Smith; Edited by Gerry Doyle
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