Korea National Diplomatic Academy Chancellor Park Cheol-hee says he believes the upcoming three-way summit between South Korea, Japan and China will serve as a platform to ease tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Park made the assessment in an article titled, “Korea’s Role as a Facilitator of Trilateral Cooperation in Northeast Asia,” published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Thursday, local time. In the article he described the U.S. and China as “competing global giants at odds.”

Park added that he believes that with the summit, “the three leaders would send a signal to North Korea that Korea, Japan, and China are willing to and can orchestrate efforts together to promote peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula in a broader regional context.”

He said the summit will serve as a key step for the three countries to regain trust and boost cooperation as well as to ease tensions and improve relations, both trilateral and bilateral. 

Park predicted that the summit will touch on environmental protection, public health and sanitation, disaster relief and the prevention of transboundary crimes.