China, Japan, and South Korea Vow to Restart Cooperation Summits
The three foreign ministers agree on restarting the summits. (Photo: Ahn Young-Joon/Reuters)
After four years with no trilateral talks between China, Japan, and South Korea, their foreign ministers finally met this Sunday and agreed to restart the cooperation summits.
“We three ministers agreed to restore and normalize three-nation cooperation at an early date,” stated the South Korean foreign minister, signaling a resumption of talks in 2024. These conferences were started in 2008, but have been on pause since 2019 due to a variety of reasons, including tensions in the region and the outbreak of COVID-19. The meeting was the first one with high-ranking officials since the summit stopped in 2019, and came on the heels of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and President Biden and President Xi Jinping’s meeting. The outcome of those meetings bodes well for continued collaboration in the trilateral talks.
On the agenda for the foreign ministers was responding to North Korea’s recent spy satellite launch, which incorporated U.N.-banned ballistic missile technology, stepping up on security, working on economic cooperation, and settling tensions still lasting from Japan’s imperialism in World War II.
With China as North Korea’s biggest ally and aid donor, Japan and South Korea are asking Beijing to persuade Pyongyang to restart negotiations and begin denuclearization. Beijing, on the other hand, has concerns regarding Tokyo and Seoul’s closer ties to the United States and an increased U.S. military presence in the region, which recently held joint maritime drills with Japan and South Korea. Beijing has warned that continuous efforts to strengthen these relations will lead to more confrontations in the region, and threaten security.
Furthermore, while Japan and South Korea have recently begun repairing ties, a South Korean court ordered Japan to compensate 16 women who were forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II. However, the Japanese foreign minister described the ruling as “extremely regrettable” and urged the court to take measures to correct the “violation of international law” this ruling caused. This ruling displays lingering trauma in both South Korea and China from Japanese imperialism.
Trilateral talks will involve geopolitical, economic, and security issues. (Photo: China Briefing)
Finally, Japan, South Korea, and China together make up a quarter of the global GDP; their economic cooperation is essential. One topic was Japan’s request that China lift its seafood ban, which was implemented after Japan began releasing water from the Fukushima disaster. Additionally, the ministers promised to work on stronger trade and economic ties.
Beyond this myriad of discussions, the countries plan to keep up the meetings with their leaders—Xi Jinping, Yoon Suk Yeol, and Fumio Kishida—in 2024, discussing diverse cooperation projects in people-to-people exchange, trade, technology, public health, sustainable development, and security. Ultimately, the resumption of the trilateral summits bodes well for peace and prosperity in the region, despite ongoing conflicts and tensions.