Japan, South Korea hone diplomatic ‘muscle memory’ amid Taiwan worries

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi met on Tuesday, with energy security as a primary agenda item. This was their fourth meeting in six months, a frequency analysts suggest reflects shared uncertainty between the two US allies, despite historical tensions. The summit's formal focus was energy security, a critical issue for both nations as heavily export-driven economies almost entirely dependent on imported energy. They are among the global economies most exposed to the ongoing fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran.