Japan gives Up 3-way summit with China, S. Korea this Year

December 17, 2017

Tokyo- The Japanese government is now believed to have given up holding a trilateral summit with China and South Korea in Japan by the end of this year, informed sources said Saturday.

This is because South Korea is putting priority on improving its relations with China, which have deteriorated over the issue of the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile defense system at a U.S. military base in South Korea, the sources said.

Leaders of Japan, China and South Korea will thus be unable to hold a meeting for the second straight year after Japan became the chair of the three nations' dialogue framework. The last trilateral summit was held in Seoul in November in 2015.

The Japanese government is now exploring the possibility of holding such a three-way summit in January next year. But it remains unclear if the talks will be held. A tripartite summit may be delayed until after a March 2018 session of China's National People's Congress, the sources said.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in held meetings with China's President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang during his visit to China from Wednesday. Moon and Li agreed to hold a trilateral summit with Japan at an early date.

But China and South Korea remain at odds over the THAAD deployment issue. With the Japanese government intending to keep a watch on the two neighbors' fence-mending efforts, work to prepare for a possible trilateral summit will inevitably be stalled, the sources said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's schedule will be busy after the turn of the year. He plans to visit Eastern European nations in mid-January.

An official of the Japanese Foreign Ministry said that it is very difficult to arrange both Abe's eastern European tour and a summit among Japan, China and South Korea in January. Jiji Press