Japan, South Korea, China meet as Trump upends old alliances

TOKYO, Japan — The top diplomats of Japan, South Korea and China met in Tokyo on Saturday, as they sought common ground on East Asian security and economic issues amid escalating global uncertainty.

“Given the increasingly severe international situation, I believe we may truly be at a turning point in history,” Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said at the start of his meeting with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Iwaya also said the three nations agreed to accelerate preparations for a trilateral summit in Japan that would include talks on how Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul can tackle declining birth rates and aging populations.

READ: Trump eyes summit with Xi-Putin, shaking up world order

The first gathering, since 2023, of these countries’ foreign ministers comes as US President Donald Trump upends decades-old alliances—potentially opening the door for China to forge closer ties to countries traditionally aligned with Washington.

Wang noted that “Our three nations have a combined population of nearly 1.6 billion and an economic output exceeding $24 trillion.”

“With our vast markets and great potential, we can exert significant influence,” he said, adding that China wants to resume free trade talks with its neighbors and expand membership of the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which is led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

But deep divisions remain. Beijing is at odds with Tokyo and Seoul on several key issues—including its support of North Korea, its intensifying military activity around Taiwan and its backing of Russia in its war with Ukraine.

US allies Japan and South Korea—both of which host thousands of American troops—share Washington’s view that China, the world’s second-largest economy, poses a growing threat to regional security.

Cho said he had asked China in the meeting to help persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.

“I also stressed that illegal military cooperation between Russia and North Korea should stop immediately, and that North Korea should not be rewarded for its wrongdoings in the course of bringing about the end of the war in Ukraine,” South Korea’s foreign chief said.

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Iwaya is to meet separately with Cho and Wang—with whom he will hold the first high-level economic dialogue with Beijing in six years.