SEOUL, South Korea: The prime ministers of China and Japan will arrive in Seoul today (Sunday) for their first trilateral summit in five years, which is expected to focus on economic issues rather than geopolitical issues.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are to meet separately with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol after arriving in the South Korean capital.
On Monday, the three leaders will hold a trilateral meeting, the first such meeting in five years.
Despite North Korea conducting increasingly advanced weapons tests and China holding military exercises around Taiwan, experts expect the summit to ignore security issues and seek common ground for an easy diplomatic victory.
Yoon, who took office in 2022, sought to bury a historic hatchet with former colonial power Japan in the face of growing threats from nuclear-armed North Korea.
China is North Korea’s biggest trading partner and a key diplomatic ally and has previously resisted condemning Pyongyang for its weapons tests, instead criticizing joint US-South Korean exercises.
A Seoul presidential office official said that issues related to North Korea are difficult to resolve cleanly and quickly in a short time, so the summit is likely to focus more on economic cooperation.
“A joint declaration is currently being discussed,” he said and added that Seoul would try to include security issues “to some extent.”
