As Trump turns world order on its head, can China, Japan, South Korea shape global future?

The world is in flux, and few appear to know where it is headed. That was the mood when China’s top diplomat Wang Yi visited Japan last week for the first time in over four years.

His previous trip to Tokyo in November 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic now seems like a relic of a different era – when the US-led world order based on post-World War II alliances still held firm and American checks and balances had a steady pulse.

Now, just two months into Donald Trump’s second presidency, the global landscape has been turned on its head – with observers bemoaning the faltering American leadership and the unravelling of the old world order.

Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, who hosted Wang for trilateral talks with their South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul on Saturday, summed it up starkly: “The international situation has become increasingly severe, and it is no exaggeration to say that we are at a turning point in history.”

This makes it “more important than ever to make efforts to overcome division and confrontation”, Iwaya said in opening the three-way meeting, the first such gathering since 2023.

The meeting largely focused on plans for a trilateral leaders’ summit later this year in Japan and possible cooperation between the three nations amid geopolitical uncertainties and economic challenges over Trump’s trade and security policies.

Iwaya said afterwards that the trio “had a frank exchange of views on trilateral cooperation and regional international affairs … and confirmed that we will promote future-orientated cooperation”.