Yoon to hold 7 summits at G-7, 2 more in Seoul

President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who visites Korea for a summit, shake hands after a joint press conference held at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul on May 7. (Yonhap)

President Yoon Suk Yeol will hold summits with leaders of seven nations including Japan on the sidelines of the three-day G-7 summit that kicks off on Friday in Hiroshima, Japan, according to the presidential office on Thursday.

Yoon is set to hold summit talks with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Friday. On the following day, he will meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indonesian President Joko Widodo and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Before heading back home on Sunday, he will hold another summit meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, just two weeks after their second meeting in Seoul. During Kishida's two-day Seoul visit, they held a summit on May 7, declaring a full resumption of shuttle diplomacy between the two countries, which had remained strained for years over historical disputes.

A trilateral summit involving Korea, the US and Japan is also scheduled to take place possibly on Sunday. Three leaders are expected to hold a three-way talk six months after their previous one in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which took place in November. The first Korea-US-Japan summit under the Yoon administration took place during the NATO summit in Madrid in June 2022.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan mentioned on Wednesday that President Joe Biden will try to hold a trilateral meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts during the G-7 summit in Japan.

Yoon and Kishida will possibly jointly visit the memorial stone dedicated to Korean victims who died from the atomic bomb in Hiroshima at the Peace Memorial Park, tentatively scheduled for May 21. Yoon is expected to become the first Korean president to visit the memorial park.

After returning home, Yoon is set to hold a summit with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Seoul, followed by a joint press conference and official dinner. On Monday, he will greet European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen who are to partake in an official visit to the country.

Before departing for Japan, Yoon held a summit with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Seoul on Wednesday.

By Shin Ji-hye(shinjh@heraldcorp.com)