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Foreign ministers vow efforts to hold early trilateral summit

Foreign ministers vow efforts to hold early trilateral summit

Posted March. 23, 2015 07:19,   

한국어

Foreign ministers of South Korea, China and Japan have agreed that they exert efforts to hold a three-nation summit at the earliest convenient time. Attention is focusing on whether three-way summit, which has not taken place since May 2012, will happen within this year.

South Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Yun Byung-se and his Chinese and Japanese counterparts, Wang Yi and Fumio Kishida held the seventh foreign ministers meeting at Shilla Hotel in Seoul on Saturday and reached the agreement. In a joint press statement, the three countries said, “It is hoped that this meeting will lead to path to recovery of trilateral cooperation. Based on the spirit we face history squarely and move towards the future, we agreed to make concerted efforts to improve bilateral ties and strengthen trilateral cooperation.” They went on to say that they reaffirmed their opposition to development of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula, and agreed that international obligations and promises under U.N. Security Council resolutions and the September 19 (2005) joint statement should be faithfully implemented.

It is the first time that that the foreign ministerial meeting among South Korea, China and Japan, which started in 2007, has adopted a joint statement that mentions issues on North Korean nuclear programs.

Prior to the meeting, President Park Geun-hye received the three top diplomats at the presidential office, and said, “Given that resolving the North Korean nuclear issue will contribute not only to development of inter-Korean relations but also to stability in Northeast Asia, South Korea, China and Japan must continue efforts to make practical progress to achieve denuclearization of North Korea.”

Foreign ministers of the three neighbors agreed to not only strengthen cooperation in nuclear safety but also expand ties in the areas of nuclear security, disaster management, and youth exchange. They also agreed to resume the South Korea-China-Japan consultative council for counterterrorism, and Africa policy dialogue, and accelerate negotiations for the South Korea-China-Japan free trade pact.

At a press conference on the day, Minister Yun said, “The three countries expressed strong opposition to North Korea’s nuclear weapons development, and agreed to strengthen cooperation to deter the North’s efforts to advance its nuclear capability.” Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said, “Trilateral cooperation has been significantly hampered recently due to recognition of history,” in criticizing Japan, while Japanese foreign minister Kishida said, “We welcome that we agreed on early convening of summit talks.”

At his meeting with Minister Yun and visit to the presidential office in the morning on the day, Minister Wang did not mention the THAAD system, an issue that has been under controversy.



shcho@donga.com