SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Seoul on Saturday for a three-way summit with South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aimed at repairing relations strained from historical and territorial issues.
A day before the summit, Park and Li were set to hold a separate meeting on Saturday with a likely focus on trade issues between two of the region’s closest economic partners. Li might also seek some sort of assurance from Park that Seoul, a key U.S. ally, will keep a neutral stance over the recent flare-up between Washington and Beijing over the U.S. Navy’s freedom of navigation operations in the disputed waters of the South China Sea, analysts said.
Sunday’s trilateral summit will be the first since 2012. The meetings were shelved after Japan’s ties with its two neighbors deteriorated over disputes stemming from its wartime aggression and territorial claims.
Park will separately meet Abe on Monday in the first formal bilateral summit in more than three years.
Japan and China have been gradually resuming exchanges following 2012 tensions over the control of disputed islands in the East China Sea. The rift began healing after diplomats agreed to restart contacts last November, when Chinese President Xi Jinping briefly met and shook hands with Abe.