Gyeongju (South Korea) (AFP) – Chinese leader Xi Jinping met South Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung on Saturday, after taking centre stage at an Asian summit in the wake of US leader Donald Trump’s departure. The talks on the sidelines of the APEC gathering came on the final day of Xi’s first trip to South Korea in over a decade and a day after his meeting with Canada’s premier, which marked a reset of the nations’ damaged ties. Trump had flown to South Korea for the summit but promptly jetted home Thursday after sealing a trade war pause with Xi, with the two agreeing to dial down a dispute that has roiled markets and disrupted global supply chains.
Trump’s departure left the Chinese leader to take centre stage at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where he has framed Beijing as a counterweight to an American-led international order. Speaking at the summit’s closing ceremony on Saturday, Xi announced that next year’s APEC meeting would take place in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Leaders also agreed to deepen cooperation on artificial intelligence, as well as issues like low birth rates, population aging, and urbanization. The Chinese leader has used the summit to rekindle old ties with nations frozen by Beijing for years.
Xi met on Friday with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on the sidelines of the event—this was the first formal talks between the two countries’ leaders since 2017. He expressed his determination to work together to get relations back on the “right track” and invited Carney to visit China. Xi also sat down with Japan’s premier, Sanae Takaichi, for the first time since her appointment in October. She reported that she told Xi she wanted a “strategic and mutually beneficial relationship between Japan and China,” but also raised a number of thorny issues with the Chinese leader, emphasizing the necessity for “direct, candid dialogue.”
The Chinese leader then turned his attention to the South Korean president in what will be their first sit-down meeting since Lee’s election in June. Lee welcomed Xi at a grand opening ceremony complete with soldiers wearing traditional garb, as footage shared by South Korean broadcaster Yonhap TV showed.
Seoul has long trodden a fine line between its top trading partner, China, and its defense guarantor, the United States. Relations with China soured in 2016 after Seoul agreed to deploy the US-made THAAD missile defense system. Beijing retaliated with sweeping economic measures, restricting South Korean businesses and banning group tours. Cultural disputes, including China’s claims over the origins of the Korean staple dish kimchi, have also soured public opinion against Beijing. Despite this, South Korea, which this week also agreed to a multibillion-dollar economic deal with the United States, remains heavily dependent on trade with its vast Asian neighbor.
Lee will likely try to “reassure Beijing that South Korea’s alignment with the United States does not preclude pragmatic economic engagement with China,” stated Seong-Hyon Lee, a scholar at the Harvard University Asia Center. The South Korean leader is keen to “seek a measure of economic stability and a more predictable floor in bilateral relations,” he told AFP. Additionally, tensions are heightened by Beijing’s close ties with North Korea, which remains technically at war with the South.
Lee plans to raise the issue of “denuclearization” with the Chinese leader, as well as broader peace efforts on the peninsula, according to Seoul’s presidential office. Ahead of their meeting, Pyongyang dismissed Seoul’s hopes for denuclearization as a “pipedream” that “can never be realized even if it talks about it a thousand times.” Speaking to reporters prior to his meeting with Xi, Lee emphasized that Beijing has a critical role to play “in achieving peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.” He added, “A stable peninsula is essential for stability in Northeast Asia, and that in turn aligns with China’s own interests. We expect China to play a significant role in this regard.”
© 2024 AFP
