Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to take part in the eighth Japan-China-South Korea trilateral summit in Chengdu, China, on Tuesday. He is also set to hold a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in for the first time since September 2018, following talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday evening.
The trilateral summits, which were intended to take place every year, have been more symbolic than significant. Since the first such gathering in Fukuoka in 2008, they have mainly focused on the regional economy, disaster relief or other generic issues, and never politically sensitive matters.
Nothing significant will likely come out of this round, including the bilateral meetings. Tokyo and Beijing will continue to work on a state visit by Xi, while Tokyo and Seoul won't be able to find a final solution to, or compromise on, the issues of compensation claims deriving from Japan's colonial rule of Korea. Beijing and Seoul will not stop mistrusting each other. Here's why.