China, Japan and ROK agree to create conditions for leaders' meeting as FMs meet

China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) on Sunday agreed to create conditions for a leaders' meeting as foreign ministers of the neighbors met in the ROK port city of Busan.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said the trilateral cooperation has "a solid foundation, robust demand, huge potential and broad prospects" at the 10th China-Japan-ROK Trilateral Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

Wang urged the three countries to do more to play an active role in promoting regional and global development, given accelerated changes unseen in a century and sluggish economic recovery.

China will continue to adhere to the basic policy of its neighborhood diplomacy, which is to pursue friendship and partnership with its neighbors and work with the ROK and Japan to push the cooperation among the three countries back on the right track and make it healthy, stable and sustainable to make new contributions to peace and prosperity of the region and the world at large, he said.

Wang stressed the importance of respecting each other's development path and core interests, properly handling sensitive issues and maintaining sound bilateral relations to lay a solid foundation for the comprehensive resumption and long-term steady development of trilateral cooperation.

The three countries should restart negotiations on a China-Japan-ROK free trade agreement to maintain the momentum of regional economic integration, he said.

China, Japan, and the ROK should strengthen cooperation in cutting-edge scientific and technological fields, such as big data, blockchain and artificial intelligence and work with each other to maintain the stability of industrial and supply chains, said Wang.

He also called on the three countries to expand people-to-people exchanges and speed up cooperation on coping with the aging population and climate change, among others.

According to the ROK and Japanese foreign ministers, the three countries should strengthen communication and exchanges, promote cooperation in various fields and bring more visible results to their peoples.

The three countries can carry out substantive and future-oriented cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, science and technology, digital transformation, cultural exchanges, environmental protection, aging, and other fields, according to ROK Foreign Minister Park Jin and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa.

The three foreign ministers agreed that cooperation between China, Japan and the ROK can go beyond Northeast Asia and play a positive role in peace and prosperity of the region and the world.

They also exchanged views on international and regional issues of common interest.

The Chinese foreign minister said China, Japan and the ROK should oppose drawing ideological lines and reject dividing regional cooperation into different camps.

"We must act as a 'stabilizer' in maintaining regional peace and security, practice the concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and stick to resolving differences and disputes through dialogue and consultation through peaceful means," said Wang.

He said the three countries should also act to de-escalate tensions in hot-spot issues.

"The continued tension on the Korean Peninsula is not in the interests of any party," said Wang. "The top priority is to cool down the situation, create necessary conditions for restarting dialogue, and to this end, take meaningful actions."

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(Cover: Foreign ministers of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) attend a trilateral meeting in Busan, ROK, November 26, 2023. /Chinese Foreign Ministry)