Combination picture of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (left to right). Leaders of South Korea, China and Japan will meet on May 26 in Seoul for their first trilateral talks since 2019
| Photo Credit: AP

Leaders of South Korea, China and Japan will meet next week in Seoul for their first trilateral talks since 2019, South Korea’s presidential office announced Thursday.

The trilateral summit among South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will take place in Seoul on Monday, Yoon’s presidential office said.

The three leaders were scheduled to hold bilateral talks among themselves on Sunday, according to the South Korean presidential office.

Since their inaugural stand-alone trilateral summit in 2008, the three Asian countries were supposed to hold such a meeting among their leaders each year. But the summit has been suspended since they were last held in December 2019 in China.

Efforts to boost cooperation among the Asian neighbors often hit snags because of a mix of issues, including historical disputes stemming from Japan’s wartime aggression and the strategic competition between China and the United States.