By Yuki Tatsumi
The China-Japan-South Korea trilateral was a good thing for Japan, but much work lies ahead.
On November 1, the leaders of China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) met for a highly anticipated trilateral summit in Seoul for the first time in three years. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and ROK President Park Geun-hye agreed that the three countries should move their relations forward based on the spirit of “facing history squarely and advancing towards the future.” Following the trilateral, Abe had bilateral meetings with Park as well as Li.
For Tokyo, this meeting is certainly the first step in mending its ties with China and Korea—relationships that have been derailed and dysfunctional for the last two years. Considerable challenges remain for Japan to capitalize on the goodwill that was seemingly created at the summit. Abe entered the meeting from a position of strength, having articulated strong support for the recent U.S. freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) in the South China Sea (consistent with Abe’s vision of Japan as a “defender of global commons”), and the recently concluded TPP agreement.
The three leaders hailed the summit, jointly declaring that their trilateral cooperation has been “completely restored.” However, most observers agree that this is hardly the reality. Matters are different for Japan especially. It is clear that Tokyo will continue to face complex diplomatic challenges with its neighbors in East Asia with little prospect for a major breakthrough in the near future.
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