Lee aims for diplomatic reboot at upcoming G7 summit in Canada

President Lee Jae-myung speaks at a meeting at the presidential office in Yongsan Seoul on June 9 2025 Yonhap — President Lee Jae-myung speaks at a meeting at the presidential office in Yongsan, Seoul on June 9, 2025. Yonhap

SEOUL, June 9 (AJP) - President Lee Jae-myung is set to embark on his first overseas trip just over a week after taking office earlier this month, as he heads to Canada to attend the G7 summit this weekend.

Just about ten days into his single, five-year term, Lee will make his debut in multilateral diplomacy, as he meets leaders of major countries at the three-day summit in Alberta, which kicks off on Sunday.

Lee's upcoming visit will be the fifth by a South Korean president to the summit, following former disgraced President Yoon Suk Yeol's attendance in the 2023 gathering in Hiroshima, Japan. But Lee becomes the fastest among South Korean presidents to do so, unlike his predecessors who usually spent two to three months settling in after taking office.

Lee is expected to hold one-on-one meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, and other leaders on the sidelines of the summit, which will bring together leaders of the G7 countries - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S. - along with leaders invited by host country Canada.

Yonhap — A logo for the G7 summit is seen, in this grab from its official website.

Should a summit with Trump materialize, the two are likely to focus on tariff-related talks - one of the most pressing issues between Seoul and Washington, ahead of the U.S.' July 8 deadline for broader sweeping tariff deals. A trilateral summit involving the leaders of Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. could also take place.

Despite concerns that such hastily-arranged meetings may not yield tangible results due to insufficient preparation, Lee's decision to attend the summit appears aimed at reviving stalled international diplomacy, which had been disrupted for over six months amid domestic political turmoil stemming from Yoon's botched Dec. 3 martial law debacle late last year.

In a phone conversation last Friday, the two leaders agreed to work hard toward reaching mutually acceptable deals, but it remains to be seen whether time constraints during their brief meeting will allow for in-depth discussions.

The meeting is also expected to be an early test of Lee's pragmatic approach to global diplomacy, as he would seek to balance Seoul's national interests with Trump's America-first policies.

Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com

Lee aims for diplomatic reboot at upcoming G7 summit in Canada

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