Korea, China's top envoys may be getting together

Foreign Minister Park Jin, top and bottom right, in a video conference call with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, bottom left, on May 16. [NEWS1]

Foreign Minister Park Jin may be meeting China's top envoy Wang Yi at the G20 foreign ministerial summit in Indonesia this week.

Such a meeting would be the first since Korea sworn in its conservative government led by Yoon Suk-yeol two months ago.

“We are coordinating bilateral and multilateral meetings to take place on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ summit,” said a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry in a press briefing Wednesday. “The meetings will be announced as soon as they are confirmed.”

The ministry was reportedly working on organizing as many as 10 sideline meetings for Park with the top envoys of the participating countries, which include China, Japan, the United States, Indonesia, Britain, France, Mexico, India and Saudi Arabia. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was also reported to be attending.

The G20 ministerial meeting is taking place in Bali from Thursday to Friday, during which U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to meet with Wang on the sidelines.

Park left for the G20 foreign ministerial meeting on Tuesday, stopping in Singapore to meet with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the country’s trade and foreign ministers.

“As a follow-up measure to last week's NATO summit in Madrid, we will discuss ways to respond to global supply chain issues and address food and energy shortages,” Park told reporters at Incheon International Airport prior to his departure on Tuesday. “Through this forum, we will strengthen the foundation of our national identity as a global pivotal country that contributes to freedom, peace and prosperity worldwide.”

Since he was inaugurated, Yoon has put out messages supporting values such as democracy, freedom and human rights, including in his inauguration speech in May and more recently at the NATO summit in Madrid last week.

His statements have never openly criticized China, although one issued jointly with U.S. President Joe Biden after a summit on May 21 emphasized the “importance of preserving peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” a touchy issue for China.

When asked about how he intends to navigate relations with China, Park told the JoongAng Ilbo in an interview last month that he wants “open and consistent communications” with Beijing.

Although Beijing had bristled at NATO members’ statement last week that called the country’s “coercive policies” a challenge to their values and security, it seemed to treat Korea’s attendance at the summit differently from Japan’s.

Korea and Japan are not members of NATO but were among four Asia Pacific countries invited to the summit.

“Japan says it welcomes greater input from NATO to the Indo-Pacific region, it seems Japan intends to spearhead NATO’s foray into the Asia-Pacific,” Zhao Lijian, the foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing, said last Friday. “This is driven entirely by selfish interest and a Cold War mentality.”

When asked about Korea’s attendance, Zhao focused his response on bilateral trade levels, stressing that two-way trade volume increased by around a third year-on-year to “a record high $362.35 billion last year.” He added that “China stands ready to work together with the Republic of Korea to advance economic and trade cooperation and deliver more benefits to both peoples.”

Yoon and his foreign policy team had announced a departure from the previous Moon Jae-in government’s policy of so-called “strategy ambiguity” in dealing with issues related to the U.S.-China rivalry.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]