[Politics & Diplomacy] Pres. Lee to debut on global stage at G7, mark S. Korea's return to top-level diplomacy

With the country's new leader elected, South Korea is resuming top-level diplomacy.

President Lee Jae-myung held a series of phone talks with foreign leaders, and is slated to attend the G7 Summit.

For more details on this, we have our Kim Bo-kyoung in the studio.

Good evening, Bo-kyoung.

Bo-kyoung, why don't we start with the phone calls President Lee had recently?

Sure, as we saw in Jung-min's report, President Lee held his third phone call with Chinese President Xi, where he asked China to play a constructive role in the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and invited him to attend the APEC summit that will take place here in November.

This follows phone talks with U.S. President Trump on June 6th and with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on the 9th.

The call with Trump was reportedly conducted in a friendly way, where they reaffirmed the importance of the Korea-U.S. alliance.

Some expressed concerns over the White House not having issued any formal comment, nor Trump mentioning the call on his social media platform, but an expert I talked to said there was not much to worry about, as Washington could be just taking a cautious approach, to better understand Lee's "pragmatic diplomacy."

In terms of Ishiba, they agreed to build a "stronger, more mature" bilateral relationship, and affirmed their commitment to trilateral cooperation with the U.S.

Right. President Lee is scheduled to attend the upcoming G7 Summit in Canada from June 15 to 17 as an observer.

And this will be his debut on the global diplomatic stage, right?

Yes, his trip to the G7 Summit comes less than two weeks after his inauguration.

The summit is going to be in Alberta, and Lee is going there at Canada's invitation.

Lee attending a G7 summit is going to be quite symbolic for South Korea, as it signals the resumption of Korea's top-level diplomacy that had been stalled over the past six months following the martial law crisis.

"The attendance basically means that we are going to normalize things and actively engage on the diplomatic stage, though we have had a diplomatic vacuum for the past six months."

Now with Trump also attending the G7 summit, is there any possibility of bilateral talks taking place between Lee and Trump?

Yes, there is always a possibility, and if they get a chance, it would be the first in seven months since the leaders of Seoul and Washington last met in person, when former President Yoon Suk-yeol and former U.S. President Joe Biden met at the APEC summit held in Peru in November last year.

But we need to note that the G7 Summit is a multilateral setting and that South Korea has been invited as an observer.

In this kind of setting, it could be quite difficult to have bilateral talks.

Also, according to an expert I talked to, it could be better for us to talk about such challenging issues later on, after being fully prepared and when proper talks can be held.

"It's not a good idea that we talk about these upcoming and very daunting issues and challenges for South Korea including tariffs and cost sharing We have to be prepared, we have to have our own strategy first, and then we will have a very detailed way to prepare to hold this meeting."

I see. How about Japan? If bilateral talks do take place, how would they be?

Yes, as Lee and Ishiba have already expressed the hope of meeting each other in person at an early date during their recent phone talks, there is the possibility that a summit will take place.

In terms of Japan, there are still concerns over how President Lee will shape his approach toward Tokyo, as he had taken a confrontational stance, regarding historical and territorial disputes.

Despite such worries, the expert says Seoul will maintain a favorable relationship with Tokyo, largely because the two countries have the same issues to deal with.

"Japan is not just a country that helps us keep countries like China and North Korea in check, but also a country like South Korea that is going through some overbearing behavior from the U.S., and therefore we need to work together in dealing with this."

And that is where we could perhaps see President Lee's "pragmatic diplomacy, " separating issues of cooperation from those of the past.

Alright, Bo-kyoung.

They are all the questions I have for now.

Thank you for the talk.

Thank you.