Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hailed improved ties with Seoul and stressed the need for stable relations with Beijing during bilateral talks with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Chinese Premier Li Qiang in Seoul on Sunday, a day ahead of their first trilateral summit since 2019.
The Japanese leader's talks with Li — their first formal meeting since the Chinese premier took up his post in March last year — lasted nearly an hour and saw Kishida emphasize a “mutually beneficial relationship based on common strategic interests" as the two countries seek to build “constructive and stable” ties.
While Li expressed his hopes that the two sides "will manage their differences," a number of divisive issues — from Fukushima wastewater to military moves near Taiwan — all but guarantee that ties continue to remain frosty.
On the topic of Japan's release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, Kishida reiterated his demand that Beijing lift its blanket ban on Japanese seafood imports, which has been in effect since Tokyo began releasing the water last August.
Although the Fukushima issue has strained bilateral relations, Japan’s ever-improving security ties with its ally, the United States, have also been a key driver in the growing Sino-Japanese divide.
On Taiwan, Kishida conveyed to Li that Japan views stability in the strait dividing the mainland and the democratic island as crucial to its own security.
"Regarding Taiwan, I also stressed that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is extremely important for Japan and the international community, while conveying that we are closely monitoring recent developments, including the military situation there," Kishida told reporters following the talks.
Tensions over the self-ruled island — which Beijing claims as a rogue province that must be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary — have soared after China held two days of its largest military drills in a year last week.
Kishida also expressed "serious concerns" about China's moves near the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. China, which has repeatedly sent government vessels into the surrounding waters, also claims the uninhabited islets, which it calls the Diaoyu.
Meanwhile, Kishida used his meeting with Yoon to tout progress on improving Japan-South Korean ties and expressed hopes for continued cooperation in tackling regional and global challenges.
"At this historical turning point for the international community, I hope that Japan and South Korea can further bolster cooperation to effectively address global challenges while maintaining and reinforcing a free and open Indo-Pacific," Kishida said.
In response, Yoon said he hoped to work together to take bilateral ties “to an even higher level” as the two countries mark the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations next year.
During the roughly 50-minute bilateral meeting, the leaders also discussed deepening security cooperation amid North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile programs. South Korea's military said Friday it had detected suspected signs that North Korea is making preparations to launch its second military spy satellite.
The South Korean Presidential Office said the two leaders had also broached the issue of a business dispute regarding ownership of the Line messaging app, the Yonhap news agency reported.
South Korea's Naver, which developed the popular app, has been facing pressure from Tokyo to sell its share in the company that controls LY, the app’s operator, following a recent security breach that prompted the Japanese government to issue administrative guidance.
Before departing for the South Korean capital, Kishida told reporters earlier Sunday that he had hoped to use the trilateral summit to “exchange frank opinions and discuss future-oriented practical cooperation” with Yoon and Li.
Noting that “the situation in the region and among the international community has changed dramatically” in the years since the last trilateral summit, Kishida said the talks come at a turning point in the three countries’ relations.
“In this context, I believe that it is of great significance for the region that the leaders of the three countries, who have a great responsibility for regional peace and prosperity, gather together to discuss the direction of cooperation,” Kishida said.
The summit is expected to cover six areas of cooperation that will be included in a joint statement released after the talks, officials have said. These are the economy and trade, sustainable development, health issues, science and technology, disaster and safety management, as well as people-to-people exchanges.
While the trilateral summit may not conclude with a raft of concrete deliverables, observers have said that just holding the meeting on Monday will be an accomplishment in its own right, as the three neighbors look to the renewed format to help promote communication and manage tensions amid growing frictions over economic and security issues.
For several years, the COVID-19 pandemic made holding a summit next to impossible, but the talks also faced headwinds amid chilly Japan-South Korea relations over wartime issues — though the two countries’ ties underwent a dramatic 180-degree turn after Yoon took office in May 2022.
Japan and South Korea headed into this summit more aligned than in any of the previous eight trilateral summits, amid the backdrop of the growing Sino-U.S. rivalry — a contest in which Washington has courted Tokyo and Seoul, deepening Beijing’s suspicions of “encirclement and suppression” by the United States and its top Asian allies.
In the latest example of Seoul and Tokyo’s shift closer to Washington, both countries were criticized after unofficial South Korean and Japanese delegations that included lawmakers attended the inauguration of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te last Monday.
While Monday’s summit may not result in any breakthroughs on sensitive issues, the renewed trilateral talks will help promote communication and manage tensions amid growing friction over economic and security issues.
The “summit involves shallower cooperation but can make incremental progress across many functional issues among Northeast Asian neighbors,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. “That China is finally re-engaging in such trilateral coordination is good news for a rules-based regional order.”
Easley, however, warned Tokyo and Seoul that they must not trade progress on the trilateral front for overlooking the more intractable issues in the three-way relationship.
“Yoon and Kishida should not allow Beijing to hold trilateral cooperation hostage for silence over Taiwan, the South China Sea, human rights, and unfair trade practices,” he said.
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