As he met their officials for the first three-way talks in four decades on Monday in Seoul, Chinese Premier Li Qiang praised what he termed a resume in relations with Japan and South Korea as he called for a resumption of business and security conversations hampered by world conflicts.
Seoul officials announced that Li, Yoon Suk Yeol, president of South Korea, and Fumio Kishida, the prime minister of Japan, will sign a joint declaration on six issues, including the economy, industry, science and technology, people-to-people exchanges, health, and the aging population.
They may even agree to continue three- group free trade agreement conversations, which have been stalled since 2019, according to Chinese media reports.
According to China’s official Xinhua news agency, Li at the conference demanded the full continuation of trilateral cooperation with an open mindset and open measures.
He claimed that despite serious world changes, the three countries ‘ relations had never changed.
” Our conference today, second in more than four decades, is both a resume and a fresh beginning”, Li said, according to a blog on X by China’s overseas department.
China and US-aligned South Korea and Japan are attempting to manage growing distrust as a result of tensions over Taiwan, which China claims to be its own, and Beijing’s conflict with Washington.
Yoon and Kishida have forged a closer relationship with one another and with Washington, entailing an unprecedented three-way military and other cooperation effort.
The leaders met separately for bilateral discussions on Monday, and the summit comes a day later.
In those discussions, Li and Yoon agreed to resume free trade talks, and Kishida and the Chinese prime minister discussed Taiwan, and they also agreed to rekindle bilateral high-level economic dialogue.
Yoon also urged China to cooperate constructively with its allies in North Korea, which is expanding its nuclear arsenal in protest of UN Security Council resolutions.
The Japan Coast Guard reported on Monday that North Korea has informed Japan of its intention to launch a rocket carrying a space satellite between May 27 and June 4.
In response to the notice, US, Japanese, and South Korean officials phoned and demanded that North Korea halt the launch because it would use ballistic missile technology in violation of UN resolutions, according to Japan’s Foreign Ministry.
Trade relations
Over the past ten years, the trade relationship between China, South Korea, and Japan has evolved to become more and more difficult.
Those ties have been further tested by US calls for its allies to shift their supply chains for key products, such as semiconductors, away from China.
Officials and diplomats from South Korea and Japan have set a low bar for the summit, stating that it is unknown whether there will be major announcements but that gathering alone will allow the three countries to resurrect and resurrect their strained relations.
Additionally, the three leaders are scheduled to speak at a forum with leading business figures.
After they first started in 2012, South Korea, Japan, and China held 16 rounds of official negotiations over a three-way FTA.
At their most recent meeting in November 2019, the three countries came to an agreement on liberalization at a level higher than the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), of which they are all members, and which covers areas ranging from trade of goods and services to investment, customs, competition, and e-commerce.
