Yoon, Kishida meet for first time in Spain

Jun 30, 2022, 09:17 am

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President Yoon Suk-yeol attends a gala dinner hosted by Spain’s King Felipe VI at the Royal Palace in Madrid on June 29, 2022./ Source: Yonhap

AsiaToday reporter Lee Wook-jae

President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met for the first time face-to-face at a gala dinner on Tuesday hosted by Spain's King Felipe VI. During the dinner, the two leaders expressed their will to improve the strained Seoul-Tokyo relations by mentioning terms like “future-oriented” and “healthier relations”. Attention is now focused on whether the relations between the two countries will be able to make a breakthrough.

Yoon and Kishida had a brief conversation for around 4 minutes at the dinner welcoming the heads of state and government on the eve of the NATO summit in Madrid. The Japanese prime minister first greeted Yoon and congratulated him on his inauguration and the ruling camp’s victory in the June 1 local elections, according to the presidential office.

In response, Yoon expressed hope that Japan’s ruling camp will see good results in the upcoming upper house elections. “My aides and I plan to promptly address Seoul-Tokyo issues once the upper house elections are over to enhance bilateral ties in a future-oriented manner,” Yoon said. Kishida thanked Yoon, saying, “I am aware that President Yoon is working hard for Seoul-Tokyo relations. Let’s make efforts to develop a healthier relationship between the two countries.”

The two leaders met again at a trilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday, and discussed pending issues such as security issues. At the meeting, Yoon stressed that the North Korean nuclear issue is a common task requiring an urgent response from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, and called for close cooperation among the three countries to make North Korea return to the dialogue table. Although a separate summit between Yoon and Kishida did not take place, the fact that the two leaders met is raising expectations for improvement in bilateral relations. It is the first meeting between Korean and Japanese leaders in over two years since a trilateral summit between South Korea, China and Japan held in Chengdu, China, in 2019.

The main reason why the bilateral talks between Yoon and Kishida could not be held is that Japan is preparing for upper house elections slated for July 10. Since the election can be seen as an intermediate evaluation of the Kishida cabinet, which was launched in October last year, the Kishida cabinet cannot help but be conscious of the views of the conservative hardliners.

#Yoon Suk-yeol #Fumio Kishida #NATO #summit