SEOUL, May 23: South Korean, Chinese and Japanese leaders will hold their first trilateral summit in nearly five years next week in Seoul, South Koreas presidential office said Thursday.
President Yoon Suk Yeol will meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the South Korean capital Monday, Seouls deputy national security director Kim Tae-hyo told reporters.
Yoon will hold separate bilateral talks with Li and Kishida on Sunday, Kim added.
The three leaders are also scheduled to attend a business summit and "encourage business people from the three countries", he said.
The upcoming summit "will serve as a turning point for fully restoring and normalising the trilateral cooperation system" between the three nations, Kim said.
The last time leaders of the three nations met was in 2019, in part due to the Covid-19 pandemic but also because of diplomatic and historical disputes between South Korea and former colonial ruler Japan.
Legal disputes over Japans 1910-45 rule over the Korean peninsula persist between the two countries.
But with the increasing threat posed by nuclear-armed Pyongyang, South Koreas Yoon has moved to bury the historical hatchet with Japan, while strengthening ties with long-standing ally Washington. —AFP
