South Korea, China and Japan begin their first trilateral summit in Seoul since 2019

May 26. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The President of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, the Chinese Premier Li Qiang and the Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, began their first trilateral summit since 2019 this Sunday in Seoul with a wide variety of issues on the table and the different approaches in relations with the United States as a backdrop.

The South Korean president is expected to first hold a meeting with Kishida in which the two will discuss their security cooperation over North Korea’s series of missile launches this year.

In fact, the South Korean military announced on Friday that it had detected suspicious signals that North Korea is making preparations to launch its third military spy satellite, and the response of Tokyo and Seoul is likely to be discussed, which will take some time. They have strengthened relations with this party thanks in part to the mediation of Washington.

Tonight the three leaders will have dinner together before the formal three-party meeting next Monday, in which the Chinese president will try to convince Yoon and Kishida to side with Beijing against the US restrictions on the export of its advanced equipment. manufacturing of electronic chips.

The leaders of South Korea and Japan, for their part, will ask the Chinese prime minister to make a diplomatic effort to reduce the constant military tests carried out by North Korea — Beijing is the great international ally of the North Korean authorities — and thus reducing tension in the area.

It is also expected that the three leaders will discuss the situation in the Taiwan Strait, after China yesterday ended the most important military exercises of the last twelve months in what is interpreted as a pressure maneuver against the new president of the island, Lai Ching Te, who has promised to defend the territory’s independence status against Beijing’s historic sovereignty claims.