Ministers seek to increase cooperation, ease tension
Print Edition
THE foreign ministers of China, South Korea and Japan pledged to set up a trilateral leadership summit at “the earliest” opportunity as they met in Seoul yesterday for the first time in nearly three years.
The talks were an effort to calm regional tensions stoked by territorial disputes and historical rows with roots in Japan’s colonization of the Korean peninsula and occupation of parts of China before and during World War II.
In a joint statement, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, Yoon Byung-se and Fumio Kishida, said they had agreed to work toward a three-way summit of their respective leaders “at the earliest convenient time.”
They also declared their “firm opposition” to the development of nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula — a clear reference to North Korea’s military ambitions.
Briefing journalists afterward the talks, Yoon said the joint statement carried “special significance” and was the product of “deep discussions” on a wide range of cooperative issues.
Started in 2007 as an annual event, the ministerial talks were last held in April 2012 before being suspended as relations went into a tailspin.
Their resumption marked a thaw of sorts that would be further underscored if a leadership summit were to take place later this year.
The last such summit was held in May 2012, since when all three countries have appointed new leaders.
Lingering animosities fueled by sovereignty rows over island territories have seen Beijing and Seoul maintain a frosty distance from Tokyo in recent years, hindering cooperation between the three Asian powers who collectively account for about 20 percent of global GDP.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Park Geun-hye have already held two fruitful bilateral summits.
But Park has refused to sit down one-on-one with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, while Xi had only a brief meeting with Abe on the sidelines of an APEC gathering in Beijing last year.
China and South Korea feel Japan has failed to express sufficient remorse for its wartime past. Both reacted furiously when, in December 2103, Abe visited a Tokyo shrine that honors Japan’s war dead, including a number of senior war criminals.
In an apparent effort to create momentum from the meeting, the statement made only a brief reference to those tensions, saying the three nations had agreed to boost cooperation “in the spirit of facing history squarely.”
According to a South Korean official, China, while agreeing in principle to a leaders’ summit, insisted that “certain political conditions” must be met.
The meeting began with talks on a range of issues, including the new Chinese-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which the United States perceives as a threat to the Washington-led World Bank.
Seoul is said to be “positively” considering joining the AIIB, while Japan’s stance has been decidedly cautious.
There was apparently no discussion on the US-backed ballistic missile defense system that it wants to deploy in South Korea as a deterrent to military provocation by North Korea.
China is strongly opposed to the deployment of the system warning that it would undermine regional peace and stability.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
