Japanese PM hosts counterparts from South Korea and China for seventh trilateral summit
Tokyo will see Shinzo Abe, Moon Jae-in and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang meet for the seventh Japan-China-South Korea Summit.
Despite being originally billed as an annual event, today’s meeting will be the first since 2015, after the summit was suspended amid chilling tensions between the three powers.
The focus of today’s summit will be on a point of celebration among the three powers — namely due to the improving situation vis-a-vis North Korea. Indeed, Moon is expected detail how the two Koreas intend to implement the Panmunjom Declaration, which vowed an end to the Korean War. Abe is expected to reiterate Japan’s demand for North Korean denuclearisation, while Li is likely to push for greater economic cooperation between the three countries.
Regardless of what is achieved, the summit presents an opportunity to ease tensions that have been sparked by territorial disputes and the US military presence in South Korea. While those problems will persist, regular dialogue between the three countries will be important in preventing any tensions from spiralling into a future crisis.
