Renewed Cooperation

The Seventh China, Japan and South Korea Trilateral Summit Meeting was held in Tokyo on May 9 with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in attendance.

The international community was focused on the summit and Li’s visit be- cause the events may signal that these countries are working to restore their pre- viously frayed ties.

At the summit, leaders from the three countries exchanged views on the future direction of their relations. They all agreed on the need to speed up talks on the China-Japan-South Korea Free Trade Area and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a proposed free trade area made up of 10 ASEAN member states and six partners. They reached a consensus to fight against trade protec- tionism and support regional economic integration. This shows that the three countries could start to cooperate again, which is crucial to the peace and stability of East Asia and the world.

Li said strengthening trilateral col- laboration not only meets the needs of the three countries, but also accords with the expectations of the region and the international community at large. He also suggested that the nations work together to roll out joint projects in production capacity cooperation, poverty reduction, disaster management and energy saving, so as to help drive the development of the entire region.

Since 2008, the summit has been held in turn in each country. However, due to the hostile, right-wing government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Japan, the recent summit was delayed for two and a half years after the sixth summit took place in South Korea in November 2015. The Chinese and Japanese governments have had an icy relationship for eight years, but recently Abe’s government has taken measures to improve relations with China, which has formed the basis for Li’s visit and the summit.

This was the first visit by a Chinese premier to Japan for eight years. Both par- ties discussed ways of bolstering political trust as well as resolving confl icts in order to bring relations between the two coun- tries back on track.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the milestone China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship. At this crucial turn- ing point, there is high hope that the Japanese Government can make the right choice for the benefi t of regional develop- ment. Today, interactions among China, Japan and South Korea are increasing and positive changes have taken place on the Korean Peninsula. All countries involved should take this opportunity to redouble efforts for the stability and long-term de- velopment of East Asia.

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