South Korea, China, and Japan are in discussions regarding the possibility of holding a summit sometime in late May, as reported by multiple diplomatic sources.
“Officials from the three countries are talking over the specific date of the envisioned summit in Seoul,” a foreign ministry official said Friday. The official said there will be an announcement once the exact schedule is fixed, adding the three nations had agreed to hold the summit at the earliest possible date.
Kyodo News of Japan also reported Thursday that the leaders of the three nations will get together to discuss issues of economic cooperation and regional security. The trilateral summit was held annually from 2008 with the three nations taking turns as the host state. Yet the summit was discontinued due to thorny issues based in historical grievances.
The summit was suspended in 2012 for three years amid conflicts surrounding Japan’s territorial claims to Senkaku (Diaoyu) islands. It resumed in December 2019 in Chengdu, China, but stalled once again due to the COVID-19 pandemic and strained relations between the three countries.
The summit, once materialized, will hold significance as it would be the first gathering of the national leaders in four years and five months. It is especially meaningful in light of the escalating regional security tensions, triggered by the intensifying hegemonic rivalry between the United States and China. North Korea has also been exacerbating military tensions by fostering its military cooperation with Russia.
Seoul has faced calls to address the increasing military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow and effectively respond to potential military provocations from North Korea. Given this, South Korea needs to fortify relations with the U.S. and Japan while soliciting cooperation with China.
The trilateral summit has been significant in light of the new Cold War confrontation in Northeast Asia and the need to mitigate tensions on the Korean Peninsula. For this, China has been urged to discard its hitherto stance of clandestinely backing North Korea’s bids toward military buildup and play a constructive and more proactive role in containing the North’s nuclear development.
Besides security, South Korea, Japan and China have many reasons for cooperation as they need to jointly cope with in diverse sectors to secure stable global supply channel, expand trade and investment, and cope with climate and health problems.
The importance of the three-way cooperation cannot be overemphasized to ensure sustainable peace and co-prosperity in Northeast Asia. The envisaged trilateral summit will pave the way for the three nations to march together toward closer cooperation and mutual prosperity beyond confrontation and antagonism. And such cooperation will help facilitate bids to strengthen security and maximize the national interests of the respective parties.
We hope the planned summit will lay the groundwork to open dialogue channels and solidify mutual trust. It should serve as an initial step to normalizing relations between the neighboring countries while expanding exchanges and cooperation in diverse areas such as businesses, culture and tourism. Toward that end, Seoul, as the host nation, should map out deliberate plans to prepare for the upcoming summit.
One the other hand, Seoul also needs to closely catch up with the rapidly warming relations between the U.S. and Japan, prompted by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to Washington starting Wednesday. Kishida’s summit with U.S. President Joe Biden draws special attention, as they will likely agree to upgrade their bilateral military cooperation to the highest level since 1960. Seoul should closely watch the possible fallout of the buildup of Japan’s military capabilities, which will also be another factor that will escalate tensions in Northeast Asia.
Against this backdrop, Seoul must employ prudent and adroit diplomatic tactics to effectively strengthen the ROK-U.S. alliance, which was elevated last year, commemorating its 70th anniversary. In April last year, the two allies agreed on the Washington Declaration featuring extended deterrence against North Korea’s potential nuclear provocations.
However, the declaration has limitations in deterring North Korea's nuclear threats. To fully implement the bilateral nuclear alliance, it's crucial for South Korea to secure nuclear processing capabilities, even at a minimal level. The existing nuclear agreement between the two countries should be revised to allow Seoul to attain nuclear processing capabilities, at least to a level equivalent to that of Japan. Seoul should also nudge the U.S. to do more to dissuade China from increasingly supporting the North’s bids to sharpen its nuclear capabilities.