SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea hosted top diplomats from China and Japan on Tuesday for a rare trilateral meeting aimed at allaying Beijing’s concerns over closer cooperation between Washington’s two allies and the United States .
The meeting is aimed in part at setting the stage for the resumption of summits between the leaders of the three countries, which last took place in 2019 and were suspended due to legal, diplomatic and trade disputes between Seoul and Tokyo over issues dating back to Japan’s occupation of Korea between 1910 and 1945.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have since taken steps to restore ties and held a trilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in August, during which the three promised to strengthen cooperation , particularly in matters of defense and economic security.
A senior South Korean government official said China has been proactive in seeking trilateral cooperation and holding meetings since relations soured between Seoul and Beijing in 2017 over the deployment of the anti-missile system American Thaad in South Korea.
“I’m sure there should be some unease on their side regarding our increasingly close trilateral security partnerships with the United States and Japan,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. due to the sensitivity of the matter.
“They seem to think they need to properly manage their bilateral relations with us because they have seen how their reactions to Thaad backfired and fueled anti-China sentiment at a high level,” he said. .
According to Tong Zhao, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Japan and South Korea have an interest in avoiding conflict and maintaining stable security relations with China, as well as obtaining help from Beijing to slow or stop North Korea’s nuclear development program.
“These common interests open new avenues for strategic communication, trust-building and crisis prevention measures,” he said.
South Korea, host of the tripartite meetings this year, proposed holding a trilateral summit in December during Tuesday’s talks, Japanese broadcaster TBS reported.
(Reporting by Josh Smith and Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; with contributions from Liz Lee in Beijing; French version Diana Mandiá, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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