The top diplomats of South Korea, Japan and China will hold a trilateral meeting — the first in 16 months and the first since US President Donald Trump’s return — while South Korea’s bid to arrange Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Seoul in connection with the talks has fallen through.
The meeting in Tokyo on Saturday will be attended by South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, his Japanese counterpart Takeshi Iwaya and Wang Yi, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday.
“The foreign ministers of the three countries will assess advancements in cooperation of the three countries that have been made since the ninth Korea-Japan-China summit in May last year,” a statement from Seoul’s Foreign Ministry read. “They will also broadly exchange opinions on the direction of trilateral cooperation development, regional and international affairs, and other related matters during the meeting.”
The three top diplomats will meet for the first time in the second Trump administration, continuing a trilateral foreign ministerial dialogue that has been held 10 times since it started in June 2007. The most recent meeting was in November 2023 in Busan, South Korea.
Cho will also hold separate bilateral meetings respectively with Iwaya and Wang in Tokyo.
The Korea-Japan foreign ministerial meeting is the first since mid-January in Seoul, where both sides reaffirmed that they would celebrate the 60th anniversary of diplomatic normalization this year despite ongoing political turmoil and potential leadership change in South Korea.
The South Korea-China foreign ministers' meeting will mark their first in-person encounter since they last met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September last year.
The Seoul-Beijing meeting will take place against a dramatically shifting geopolitical backdrop. Since their last meeting, US President Trump has returned to office, North Korea has deployed troops to Russia, and in South Korea, anti-China sentiment has surged amid the monthslong political crisis, especially among some conservative forces.
However, Wang has notably opted not to visit South Korea. Seoul and Chinese diplomatic authorities had been in discussions to schedule Wang's visit for bilateral ministerial talks — the first since November 2023 — either before or after his trip to Tokyo, according to diplomatic sources in talks with The Korea Herald.
Seoul saw Wang's trip as crucial for enhancing high-level exchanges, which could make a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to South Korea possible when South Korea hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit from late October to early November. If realized, it would be Xi's first visit to South Korea in 11 years since 2014.
The growing anti-China sentiment serves as a significant obstacle to Wang's trip to South Korea, particularly during a time of political uncertainty as South Korea awaits the Constitutional Court's verdict on the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol. Protests against China and accusations of Chinese interference in elections have escalated since Yoon's impeachment by the National Assembly for his botched martial law declaration on Dec. 3 last year.
Chinese diplomatic sources previously told The Korea Herald that Beijing is taking the Feb. 14 arrest of a Yoon supporter who — dressed in a Captain America outfit — attempted to break into the Chinese Embassy very seriously.
Another source in Seoul, who was knowledgeable about the matter but wished to remain anonymous, told The Korea Herald that China remains concerned about increasing anti-China sentiment and protests, citing a key example: Shandong Taishan of China abruptly defaulted on its AFC Champions League match against Ulsan HD on Feb. 19, just hours before the kick-off — at the order of the Chinese government.
Chinese Ambassador to South Korea Dai Bing in February publicly cautioned against a small but “destructive” anti-China faction stirring up accusations of interference in the election and protests that could “seriously harm” China-Korea relations.
dagyumji@heraldcorp.com
