South Korea, China, and Japan, three giant Asian Nations would hold their trilateral summit this year, after covid-19 disruptions.
The three countries had agreed to hold a summit every year starting in 2008 to foster regional cooperation. The last summit was in 2019 due to the pandemic and bilateral conflicts.
South Korea is this year’s host for three-way meetings and has proposed a summit in late December, Japanese broadcaster TBS reported.
“We unanimously believe that carrying out cooperation is in the common interests of the three parties,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday.
“We should work together to strengthen practical cooperation … and make new contributions to regional peace, stability, and prosperity.”
Beijing will most likely look to leverage trilateral trade ties to counterbalance the U.S. friend-shoring strategy, promote people-to-people exchanges, and enhance communication and dialogue with Seoul and Tokyo on security and defense matters, said Tong Zhao, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Recently, South Korea and Japan held a record-breaking unilateral summit with Joe Biden in the United States.
