At a summit meeting in Washington, D.C. on Monday, the U.S. and South Korean presidents will discuss modernizing their 71-year-old alliance and fleshing out a trade deal reached last month.

Washington’s increasing focus on Beijing is straining the decades-old alliance between South Korea and the United States.

South Korea hopes to normalise relations with China that have been strained in recent years, a special envoy from Seoul told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday, and agreed to boost economic cooperation,