SEOUL: A meeting among the leaders of Japan, China and South Korea is being planned for May with Seoul as the chair, it was learned Friday.

If realized, it will be the first trilateral summit since December 2019. The three Asian neighbors’ foreign ministers had agreed last November to hold a three-way summit at an early date.

The three countries had held such a conference annually in principle, but the practice stopped due to chilled Tokyo-Seoul relations and the COVID-19 pandemic.

South Korea had aimed to host a summit last year, but it was postponed.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to attend the planned meeting, as are South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

Seoul wants China to play a bigger role in stopping North Korea’s nuclear and missile development. It has taken a positive stance toward revitalizing the trilateral cooperative framework.

Meanwhile, Beijing is wary of strengthened security cooperation among Japan, South Korea and the United States, which it views as an attempt to contain China.

The three countries’ leaders are expected to discuss cooperation in six areas, on which their foreign ministers had agreed at last year’s meeting. The areas are human exchanges, science and technology, sustainable development, public health, economic cooperation and trade, and peace and security.

JIJI Press