China, Japan and South Korea held their first high-level meeting in almost 5 years

A meeting was held between Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yun Seok-yeol in Seoul. This is the first tripartite meeting of the three countries since 2019, aimed at resuming negotiations on free trade and security. This was reported by Reuters. At the opening of the summit, Li Qiang declared that the talks are "both a restart and a new beginning" and called for a comprehensive resumption of cooperation between East Asian economic giants, separating politics from economic and trade issues. After the trilateral summit, the parties made a joint statement in which they support the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the restoration of stability in Northeast Asia. During the summit, the parties also agreed to accelerate negotiations on a free trade agreement, "pursuing free, fair, comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial." The main topics of the trilateral negotiations were trade and economy, humanitarian exchanges, sustainable development and response to climate change, health care and the problem of population aging, science and technology, as well as cooperation in the fight against the consequences of disasters.