By Shannon Tiezzi
The first trilateral foreign ministers’ meeting in nearly 3 years included a major emphasis on history.
China, Japan, and South Korea held their highest-level trilateral meeting in almost three years on Saturday. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, and South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se met in Seoul on March 21 for the first trilateral foreign ministers’ meeting since April 2012.
In a joint press release issued after the meeting, Wang, Kishida, and Yun affirmed their countries’ commitment to trilateral cooperation. “[T]he deepening of trilateral cooperation… contributes to each bilateral relations and to the peace, stability and prosperity of the Northeast Asian region,” the statement said. Accordingly, China, Japan, and South Korea agreed to resume a number of trilateral dialogues, including talks on counter-terrorism, cyber policy, air pollution, and people-to-people exchanges. The statement also emphasized that China-Japan-South Korea cooperation on a number of anodyne issues (such as disaster management, cultural exchanges, public health, and investment) had continued despite the tensions of the past three years.
In addition to trilateral issues, the ministers discussed a number of regional and international hot spots, from North Korea’s nuclear program to issues in the Middle East and Ukraine.
However, while the bulk of the official joint press release dealt with the future, historical issues remained a major undercurrent at the talks. Prior to the meeting, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said, “The history issue must not be shelved during the foreign ministers’ meeting… China hopes that the three foreign ministers can seize this opportunity to candidly exchange views on the history issue.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat