South Korea’s new president is facing a series of tests of his self-styled pragmatic foreign policy.
Lee Jae-myung’s visit to Japan over the weekend — his first overseas trip — reflected a shift in the two countries’ relations “from enmity to friendliness,” as US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable policies draw the nations closer, CNN wrote.
Lee is also sending a delegation to China this week as Seoul reportedly eyes normalizing relations with Beijing. And he is meeting with Trump on Monday to push for stronger shipbuilding and security cooperation.
How Lee manages the White House meeting will signal whether “Washington’s transactional approach can sustain the deeper trust needed for alliance management in an era of great power competition,” Carnegie Endowment experts wrote.