The bilateral meetings between the leaders held on May 26 revealed how different Seoul’s current relations with Beijing and Tokyo are in terms of the matters up for discussion.

What Yoon Suk-yeol and Li Qiang agreed on

Li Qiang, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, arrived in Seoul around noon. This was his first visit to the country since taking office in March 2023. Lee and Yoon’s first meeting, in September 2023, took place in Indonesia on the margins of the ASEAN summit.

In his opening remarks, South Korean president Yoon Seok-yeol emphasized the importance of cooperation with China “in the face of today’s complex global challenges,” – in particular to address the growing economic uncertainty over the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“Over the past three decades of diplomatic relations between the two countries, bilateral relations have rapidly made significant progress, especially in the fields of economy and trade, bringing great benefits to the people of both countries,” Li Qiang said during his opening remarks.

The main outcomes of the meeting can be divided into several categories, as follows.

Security issues: Yoon and Lee agreed to establish a two-plus-two diplomatic security dialogue between the two countries’ foreign and defense ministries in mid-June and to resume the strategic dialogue between their deputy foreign ministers in the second half of 2024. The resumption of this diplomacy and security channel comes after the two countries halted such meetings in 2016 when Korea and China disagreed over the placement of the US THAAD missile defense system on South Korean territory.

Economical issues. The main goal in this area is to resume negotiations on the second phase of the bilateral free trade agreement between the two countries in early June in order to boost mutual trade in the services sector and mutual investment. The first phase of the free trade agreement, which entered into force in December 2015, included the elimination of tariffs on basic goods. “Discussions will go beyond opening markets in the trade in goods and cover sectors such as services, culture, tourism and legal services to expand exchanges and openness between the two countries,” First Deputy National Security Advisor Kim Tae-hyo said at a press briefing. This is important because although the agreement will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2025 its effectiveness has been questioned due to the relatively narrow range of goods covered by the tariff concessions. Moreover, the talks were actually suspended as part of China’s response to South Korea’s deployment of the THAAD system.

Then, after a 13-year hiatus, the sides also agreed to........

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