Seoul: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will make a two-day visit to Japan’s Nara prefecture early next week for summit talks with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to discuss ways to strengthen bilateral ties, Cheong Wa Dae said Friday.
Lee is scheduled to depart for Japan next Tuesday for the summit talks, which will be held in the Japanese prefecture of Nara, Takaichi’s hometown, Cheong Wa Dae said, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The two leaders are expected to discuss a wide range of regional and global issues, as well as the economy, society and culture, Cheong Wa Dae said in a statement.
Lee and Takaichi last held summit talks on Oct. 30 on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Gyeongju and briefly met on the margins of the Group of 20 leaders’ gathering in South Africa in November.
Lee will attend a friendship event with Takaichi next Wednesday and meet with ethnic Koreans in Japan before returning home that day.
The trip will mark Lee’s second visit to the neighboring country after he visited Tokyo in August and held summit talks with Takaichi’s predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba.
The upcoming visit is expected to help strengthen the future-oriented momentum of bilateral ties through “shuttle diplomacy,” or reciprocal visits, according to Cheong Wa Dae.
Lee has said he intends to advance ties with Japan in a future-oriented manner, while not overlooking longstanding wartime history issues stemming from the time when Korea was under Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule.
The planned summit between Lee and Takaichi comes as tensions between Tokyo and Beijing remained heightened over the Japanese prime minister’s remarks about Taiwan.
On Thursday, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun met with the policy chief of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and discussed efforts to advance bilateral relations, along with other shared issues, the foreign ministry said.
During the meeting with Takayuki Kobayashi, chairperson of the LDP’s Policy Research Council, Cho took note of the bilateral ties between Seoul and Tokyo moving forward in the right direction based on continued “shuttle diplomacy,” or regular visits by their leaders, the ministry said.
Cho expressed hope that Kobayashi will further make efforts to help deepen relations between the two countries in various areas.
Kobayashi, in turn, assessed that the shuttle diplomacy has helped the bilateral ties move forward in a future-oriented and stable manner, underscoring the importance of continuing bilateral cooperation as well as the trilateral partnership with the United States.
Kobayashi, a former economic security minister, has served as the LDP policy chief since October last year. The Policy Research Council’s chair oversees the party’s policy-making process and is considered one of the most powerful posts within the LDP.
(IANS)
