Why there will be no talk of Taiwan conflict in coming Seoul-Washington summit

The United States is expected to pile pressure on South Korea for increased burden-sharing of defence costs in a coming summit between the leaders of both countries, with Seoul’s role in a potential Taiwan conflict set to be excluded from the agenda.

The cautious stance on China also aligns with the office of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung stressing the importance of fostering ties and engagement, as it downplays comments by his foreign minister labelling Beijing a “problem”.

Discussions are still under way to finalise the agenda for the first summit between Lee and US President Donald Trump, tentatively set for later this month in Washington.

US representatives have reportedly informed Seoul during working-level talks that Washington does not plan to raise the Taiwan issue at the summit, according to Yonhap News Agency.

Instead, the summit was likely to yield only a broad agreement to elevate the bilateral alliance into a “comprehensive strategic alliance” in response to an evolving regional security environment, it said.

The progressive Hankyoreh daily, citing a senior government official, also reported that South Korea’s role in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would not be broached at the summit. “That is a hypothetical situation, so we will not talk about it,” the official said.