After a hiatus of more than three years, the PRC-Japan-Republic of Korea trilateral configuration resumed its work in Seoul at the end of May this year. However, its prospects remain unclear due to the extremely complex political environment in the East Asian region.

On 26-27 May, the capital of the Republic of Korea, Seoul, hosted a series of summit meetings with the participation of Chinese Prime Ministers Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, as well as ROK President Yoon Suk Yeol. Although relatively recently, scepticism prevailed about the very possibility of holding such events in the above-mentioned composition of participants, which was also shared by the author of this article.

Since the picture of the general political situation in the East Asian region in general and, especially, in China’s relations with Japan, i.e. between its two main countries, looks very bad. The inauguration of the new President of Taiwan, which took place a week earlier, and everything that preceded it, but mainly followed it, were further evidence of this.

We should also note the fact that the penultimate (eighth) time the PRC-Japan-RC summit was held in December 2019, which is already quite far away. Including the gradual formation of a trilateral Free Trade Zone. However, almost immediately after the mentioned Summit of 2019, such plans began to look almost like ridiculous fantasies.

Therefore, against the backdrop of an increasingly gloomy picture of rising tensions in the region and the world at large, the events under discussion in Seoul look like a rare bright spot. However, the main one, i.e. the trilateral summit, was preceded by:

Bilateral meetings

They are all of interest, each in its own way, but the Japan-China summit deserves special attention (for the reasons outlined above). And here, too, we would like to draw attention to the fact that in a situation in which not only the regional but also the world situation has fallen into a state of increasing (seemingly universal) insanity, it is not so much the final details of the meetings between the representatives of the opposing sides, but the very fact that the lines of communication between them are maintained........

© New Eastern Outlook