Japan and South Korea are seeking to strengthen cooperation amid growing geopolitical risks and Tokyo’s worsening relations with Beijing.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi met in Nara, Takaichi’s hometown, on Tuesday and agreed to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation at a time of rising geopolitical uncertainty around the world.

“I believe cooperation between Korea and Japan is now more important than ever and anything else, as we have to continue moving forward to a new, better future amid this complex, unstable international order,” Lee said at the outset of the summit.

Takaichi said she wanted to further improve Japan’s relations with South Korea “as I believe the two countries should cooperate and contribute for the stability in the region.”

Both sides agreed on “shuttle diplomacy” three years ago, with regular meetings at the highest level.

Lee’s national security adviser, Wi Sung Lac, said the summit’s goal was to build trust between the South Korean and Japanese leaders.

Lee and Takaichi discussed ways to boost cooperation in a raft of areas including cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, combating cross-border crime, and promoting people-to-people exchanges.

Foreign affairs likely dominated their talks amid US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable “America First” policies and the trade rivalry between the US and China, the world’s top two economies.

Complicated ties with China

Japan and South Korea, both longtime US allies, also share a complicated relationship with China.

Lee’s Japan trip comes after he visited China last week.

In Beijing, the South Korean leader met with his Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping, to repair bilateral relations after strained ties under Lee’s predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol.

Lee asked Xi to use China’s influence on North Korea to promote the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The Chinese leader, for his part, urged the South Korean president to make the “right strategic decisions” and recalled the two countries’ fight against Japanese militarism 80 years ago. Xi’s aim was to draw South Korea to China’s side in Beijing’s ongoing row with Japan over Taiwan.

The dispute erupted following Takaichi’s remark in the Japanese Parliament that any potential Chinese military action against Taiwan — the island democracy Beijing claims as its own — could justify Japanese intervention.

China has since been intensifying trade and political pressure on Takaichi with economic sanctions in order to get her to retract her statement. Lee stayed out of the dispute and emphasized during his China visit that Seoul’s relations with Tokyo are just as important as those with Beijing.

Japanese officials said both sides would engage in candid talks on China, but it’s unlikely the content of the discussions will be made public, reported the Japan Times.

No mediating role

At the beginning of December, Lee had offered to mediate between China and Japan.

“It is desirable to minimize the conflict and play a role in mediation,” he said. There were even calls for Lee to revive the trilateral cooperation between China, Japan and South Korea. Such cooperation is necessary, Lee said in Nara.

However, during his visit to China, the South Korean leader refrained from attempting mediation. “Our scope for action is currently limited,” he said in Shanghai, but added: “When the time and situation are right, we will look for a role we can play.”

Ties between Japan and China have deteriorated further since then.

Last week, China banned exports of items ⁠destined for Japan’s military that have civilian and military uses, including some critical minerals. Beijing has also begun restricting rare-earth exports to Japan more broadly.

The measures could also affect South Korean businesses, whose supply chains in areas such as semiconductors are closely intertwined with Japanese ones in some cases.

Against this backdrop, both Lee and Takaichi discussed ways to improve economic security, for instance in terms of gaining access to rare earths.

Historical disputes remain unresolved

Takaichi and Lee also have little in common politically.

Lee was a critic of close ties with Tokyo because of bitter memories of Japan’s brutal occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

Takaichi sees herself as the heir to longtime Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who refused to apologize for the colonial era and Japanese atrocities during World War II.

Nevertheless, Lee is following the policy of his predecessor Yoon to put historical differences aside and focus on cooperation.

Takaichi has also avoided classic points of contention such as the territorial dispute over the Dokdo/Takeshima islands and emphasized the opportunities for better relations.

After his first personal meeting with Takaichi on the sidelines of a multilateral regional summit in the South Korean city of Gyeongju at the end of October, Lee said his concerns about the Japanese politician’s conservative views had “disappeared.”

On Wednesday, Lee and Takaichi will visit the Horyuji temple complex near Nara, known for having the oldest wooden buildings in the world. The region of Nara, Kyoto, and Osaka has historical ties to the Korean Peninsula and a large Korean community.

Lee will then meet with Korean residents in Osaka before returning to Seoul. The next shuttle meeting between the two sides is expected to take place in Lee’s South Korean hometown of Andong.