In the midst of an ugly trade dispute with the United States, China has found an unlikely ally in Asian neighbor Japan. Despite feuds in the South China Sea regarding territories, China is looking towards maintaining healthy relations with Japan and South Korea.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as well as South Korean president Moon Jae-in. The three will meet at a summit hosted in Tokyo, which aims to create a strategic partnership between the three countries. Among the discussion they'll be having is about the economics and what the three can do to propagate their economies while helping each other.
This summit, according to SCMP, first happened in 2008. It has since been planned, but didn't push through due to a lot of reasons, mostly territorial disputes; it would be interesting to see what will happen when South Korea and China meet. China has been eyeing an increasingly dominant role in creating peace in the Korean peninsula.
China is also looking for Asian partners on the "Belt and Road Initiative." In Asia, Japan as well as South Korea-are the most sensible partners to look for. Japan seems to be the hardest partner to woo. Currently, Japan is committed to investing $1.5 trillion into the program, per Financial Times. That being said, there's still creating interest in the project, along with making Japanese politicians and media warm up to the concept, left to be done.
At the summit, China remained hopeful that they will create enough awareness of the countless benefits of the program. The trade war with the US also came as an unexpected blessing; there are countless problems it has caused for nations like Japan and South Korea, who rely on US imports. The US' loss could be China's gain, and that's what they plan to show in the trilateral summit.
During the summit, they would also sign documents that would guarantee investors granted quotas. Free trade will also be an important agenda to discuss, where strengthening economic ties is the key. Closing these deals with Japan and South Korea would be important to show that the "Belt and Road Initiative" works. It would also establish old, ancient links between the countries, who had been trading partners even before modern times.
