President Lee Jae Myung checks his watch after deplaning on the Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Windfall, on Oct. 27, 2025, upon getting back from the ASEAN summit in Malaysia. (Yonhap)
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung arrived Tuesday afternoon in Gyeongju, the positioning of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation summit. Forward of the opening of this main multilateral occasion, Lee ready a by-the-minute timeline for greeting essential visitors within the metropolis.
The variety of leaders requiring one-on-one conferences over the four-day schedule starting on Wednesday quantities to round 10, together with US President Donald Trump, Chinese language President Xi Jinping, and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
The one earlier president to deal with this sort of home multilateral summit previously was Roh Moo-hyun, who met with then-US President George W. Bush, Chinese language President Hu Jintao, and Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2005 when the APEC summit was being hosted in Busan.
An important conferences on Lee’s schedule are bilateral encounters with the leaders of the US and China: Trump on Wednesday afternoon and Xi on Saturday.
Lee is tasked with resolving uncertainties for the home financial system by reaching a follow-up settlement to the South Korea-US tariff negotiations in July with Trump, who’s visiting for the primary time since June 2019, over six years in the past.
If Trump arranges a shock assembly with North Korean chief Kim Jong-un throughout his keep, it falls on Lee to help that encounter’s success by taking part in the type of “pacemaker” position he indicated he would tackle on the leaders’ summit in August.
The summit with Xi on Saturday locations a equally heavy weight on Lee’s shoulders. As Xi visits South Korea for the primary time in 11 years, Lee’s intention is to take the primary steps in restoring bilateral ties to their state earlier than a battle erupted in 2016 over the Terminal Excessive Altitude Space Protection (THAAD) antimissile system.
Police do a safety verify on Oct. 28, 2025, on the Gyeongju Arts Heart in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, the place the APEC CEO summit shall be held this week. (Yonhap)
Observers are additionally predicting the summit’s discussions will embrace such tough issues as rising anti-Chinese language demonstrations in South Korea and bans on South Korean tradition and merchandise which have tacitly continued, regardless of Beijing’s denials.
Lee seems prone to maintain a summit on Thursday with Takaichi, who turned Japan’s newest prime minister on Oct. 21. In distinction with the state visitor visits by the US and Chinese language leaders, the South Korea-Japan summit is predicted to be transient, lasting solely 20 to half-hour. Many are watching to see whether or not the pleasant relations established with Tokyo beneath Takaichi’s predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, will proceed beneath the brand new prime minister, who is understood for her far-right views.
Moreover, Lee is predicted to pursue summit diplomacy on matters equivalent to commerce, funding, and safety cooperation with the leaders of different Asia-Pacific international locations, together with Canada, Australia, Chile and Indonesia.
As president of the host nation, Lee faces the additional duties of main the primary APEC financial leaders’ assembly — a two-day schedule that begins on Friday — and coordinating the adoption of a declaration to revive the multilateral order from its presently shaky state.
The declaration to be adopted on the summit’s shut would want to incorporate a diplomatic imaginative and prescient for stabilizing the worldwide commerce order, which has lately been rattled by the tariff warfare and protectionist insurance policies stoked by Washington, and making certain financial cooperation and prosperity for the Asia-Pacific area.
One other key a part of Lee’s schedule includes assembly with international enterprise leaders attending the APEC CEO summit. Round 1,700 enterprise figures from world wide are set to attend the summit, and Lee is scheduled to take day trip to satisfy with the CEOs of a lot of international firms, together with Worldwide Financial Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.
A primary summit with Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong awaits on Sunday, the day after the APEC summit ends.
By Shin Hyeong-cheol, employees reporter
Please direct questions or feedback to [english@hani.co.kr]
