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| Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, U.S. President Joe Biden, center, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are seen in this combined file photo. EPA-Yonhap |
President Yoon Suk Yeol will attend a Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima, Japan, later this week and hold a trilateral meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on its sidelines, his office said Sunday.
Yoon will attend the three-day G7 summit starting Friday as the leader of an invited country, as South Korea is not a member of the G7.
He will address an expanded session of the G7 summit, which will involve the G7 members and eight guest nations, to speak on food and energy issues.
The other seven invited countries are Australia, Brazil, Comoros, the Cook Islands, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
"Our selection as a G7 invited country this year confirms our status as a global partner," Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo said during a press briefing. "The trend we're seeing is a strengthening of relations with key friendly nations such as the United States and Japan, and an expansion of bilateral diplomacy, where we have built trust, to multilateral diplomacy."
Yoon will be the fourth South Korean president to attend a G7 summit. He will be accompanied by first lady Kim Keon Hee.
The Yoon-Biden-Kishida meeting will come on the heels of Yoon's summit with Biden during a state visit to Washington last month and a summit with Kishida in Seoul last week.
The three leaders are expected to discuss strategic cooperation measures, including their response to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, the energy crisis and other common challenges, according to Kim.
Chief among the agenda items will be their agreement in Cambodia last November to share missile warning data in real time to counter growing North Korean missile threats.
"Rather than a new agreement being reached, I think the three leaders will be briefed on progress made so far and the three countries will each announce a coordinated outcome," a presidential official said.
The meeting will likely be held in the "latter half" of the G7 summit period, given the first and second days are packed with G7-related events, the official added.
Bilateral meetings with other G7 leaders are also being planned on the sidelines.
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| President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pose for a photo at their summit at the presidential office in Seoul, May 7. Yonhap |
Separately, Yoon and Kishida will pay a joint visit to a memorial dedicated to Korean victims of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, according to Kim.
It will be the first visit to the memorial by a South Korean president and the first joint visit by the leaders of the two countries.
Yoon is also scheduled to hold summits with visiting leaders before and after his trip to Japan.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will make an official three-day visit to South Korea starting Tuesday to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties.
On Wednesday, Yoon and Trudeau will hold a summit, followed by a joint press conference and an official dinner.
Immediately after returning from Japan, Yoon will hold a summit with German Chancellor
Olaf Scholz in Seoul, which will also be followed by a press conference and a working dinner.
The next day, Yoon will hold a summit with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. (Yonhap)
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