[Secret Translator] Japan Postpones Separate Talk With Communist China at the G20, Holding Japan-South Korea-US Talks Instead

G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting will be held in Bali, Indonesia, starting on July 7. According to Japanese media Sankei Shimbun, Japan will postpone the separate meeting between Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa and Communist China and South Korea, which was scheduled for July 7 originally.

Recently, after the sailing of a CCP (Chinese Communist Party) Navy frigate into the waters off the Senkaku Islands (Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture), the Japanese government protested to the CCP and requested no further such events. The Japanese government justified this as the wrong time to hold separate talks with the CCP.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will also attend the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting.

As for South Korea, the formal foreign ministers meeting will be postponed due to the lack of progress in talks between the two countries on the so-called draft lawsuit and the comfort women issue.

On the other hand, the foreign ministers of Japan, the U.S., and South Korea are coordinating a meeting between the three countries. This meeting will be the first between the foreign ministers of Japan, the U.S., and South Korea since they met in Hawaii in February of this year, as well as the first meeting since Yoon Suk-yeol took office in the South Korean government.

The meeting will seek to strengthen deterrence against North Korea, which is pursuing its nuclear and missile programs, and confirm cooperation in resolving the abduction issue.

And the main topics of the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting will be the food crisis and energy issues following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to attend this meeting, and each country’s response will be one of the focuses of attention.