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China, Japan, South Korea vow to improve trilateral relations

FORUM Staff

A highly anticipated meeting between China, Japan and South Korea — the first of its kind in 3 1/2 half years — culminated November 1, 2015, with the North and East Asia powers declaring that their views on trilateral cooperation and the need for them to resume had been “completely restored.”

“Japan, China and South Korea are neighbors, and because we are neighbors, there are difficult issues among us,” Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, according to Reuters. Talks between the three powers had stalled in part because of territorial disputes and historical tensions with Japan.

Nonetheless, Abe, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean President Park Geun-hye agreed to expand social and economic cooperation to aid in a more prosperous Northeast Asia and boost cooperation between the three countries to generate new growth.

The meeting, hosted by Park in Seoul, also gave the countries a chance to discuss one of the larger impending security threats to Northeast Asia: North Korea and its nuclear program. Abe, Li and Park vowed to “oppose any action that may cause tension on the Korean Peninsula or violate relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions,” the Financial Times newspaper reported.

Six-party talks focused on ending North Korea’s nuclear program have stalled since 2008. Experts remain skeptical that discussions will resume any time soon because North Korea appears to be ramping up its arms race and developing a more sophisticated weapons program. The United States and Russia are the other two members of the talks, in addition to China, Japan, South Korea and North Korea.

“Nobody is under any illusions that summits are like a magic wand, but there is a lot of low-hanging fruit that leaders can focus on to launch confidence-building measures in a region brimming with tensions,” Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple University’s Japan campus, told Bloomberg. “It’s key now to quickly follow up the summit with some tangible initiatives that will provide an opportunity to shift more controversial issues off the front burner.”

Economic cooperation may be the first initiative that Japan, China and South Korea focus on for such trust building measures. It could come through concluding a 16-nation free trade area and a separate three-way free trade deal on the table since 2013, called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnerships (RCEP).

China has remained one of the biggest pushers for RCEP, which would create what Reuters called “the world’s biggest free trade bloc of 3.4 billion people.” The 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations and India are included in the 16 countries that are part of the trade negotiations.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s office issued a brief statement “warmly” welcoming resumption of the trilateral meetings.

“He hopes that the resumption of the trilateral meetings format will reinforce the collaboration among the three countries and foster strengthened cooperation in Northeast Asia,” the statement read. “The United Nations encourages all parties to work closely together to promote mutual trust and cooperation for peace and prosperity in the region.”

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