S. Korea, China, Japan to hold talks to discuss three-way summit

South Korea’s ambassador to Japan said “high-level” talks are underway for a three-nation summit with China poised to happen this year, and it wouldn’t affect ties with the US, Report informs, citing Bloomberg.

Those discussions are going well, Yun Dukmin, Seoul’s envoy to Japan said in an interview. There may be a “Camp David effect” that prompted China to reach out to its neighbors, Yun said, adding that a summit with Beijing wouldn’t hurt relations with Washington after the historic meeting with the US.

The foreign minister from South Korea and Japan met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly to help advance a three-way summit and senior officials from the three Asian nations are set to meet in Seoul on September 26. Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo are likely to meet on the sidelines of a sporting event this weekend, Yonhap News reported.

South Korea is working to revive three-way summits among Japan and China that have stalled since 2019 due initially to the Covid-19 pandemic. But Beijing has been angered by President Joe Biden’s historic summit in August at the Camp David presidential retreat with the leaders of South Korea and Japan, saying it’s a deliberate attempt to sow discord among the Asian neighbors.

“The relationship between Japan and South Korea has progressed so rapidly that it’s become an environment that China hasn’t experienced in the last 10 years or so,” Yun said on Wednesday. “It would be better for the stability of the region if the neighboring countries cooperate and get along well rather than confronting each other like this.”