(2nd LD) S. Korea, U.S., Japan to hold talks among top diplomats in Bali

(ATTN: UPDATES with Park's bilateral and multilateral meetings in paras 5-7; CHANGES photos)

SEOUL/BALI, July 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin is scheduled to hold trilateral talks with his American and Japanese counterparts on the sidelines of a Group of 20 (G-20) session in Indonesia this week, his ministry announced Thursday.

It would mark Park's first in-person group meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi since taking office in May, another show of the regional powers' efforts to bolster their security cooperation amid North Korea's unrelenting saber-rattling.

Their talks will be held in Bali on Friday afternoon, according to the ministry's deputy spokesperson Ahn Eun-joo.

But it remains undecided whether Park will have a separate formal bilateral meeting with the Japanese minister, she added.

Later Thursday, Park had his first one-on-one discussion with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, during which he underscored the importance of developing the bilateral ties based on "mutual respect" and affirmed the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's policy to play a greater role on the global stage.

On the margins of the ministerial, Park also sat down with his counterparts from Indonesia, Australia and the European Union and held mutilateral talks with foreign ministers from four other MIKTA members -- Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey and Australia -- to discuss the situation in Ukraine and food security issues, his office said.

MIKTA, an acronym for the five countries' names, is an informal multilateral consultative body set up in 2013 to strengthen partnership among the middle-power nations.

ejkim@yna.co.kr
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