Foreign Ministers of South Korea, Japan and China to discuss trilateral summit

The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan, and China will hold their first trilateral talks since 2019 over the weekend in Busan, announced the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday.

Ministers Park Jin, Yoko Kamikawa, and Wang Yi will meet on Sunday in the South Korean coastal city against the backdrop of growing concerns in Beijing about the increasing security ties between Tokyo and Seoul with Washington.

The announcement of the meeting comes days after North Korea launched its first spy satellite into orbit, leading to the suspension of a military agreement between the two Koreas since 2018, aimed at defusing tensions on the peninsula.

Earlier this month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned of the "growing and dangerous" military ties between North Korea and Russia, calling on China, North Korea's main ally, to rein in the nuclear-armed North.

The ministers in the upcoming meeting intend to "exchange views intensively on the direction of tripartite cooperation, regional and international situations," according to a statement from the South Korean Foreign Ministry.

The ministers will also pave the way for a future trilateral summit among the leaders of the three countries.

AFP