Japan, China and South Korea discuss trilateral cooperation

TOKYO (AP) — Foreign ministers from Japan, China and South Korea reaffirmed the importance of denuclearization on the Korean peninsula and sought trilateral cooperation on common ground in areas like aging, low birth rates, natural disasters and cultural exchange at a meeting that took place at a time of growing tensions.

At a joint news conference after the talks, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said he, his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and South Korea's Cho Tae-yul agreed on the need to promote mutual understanding and trust, while tackling shared and multi-generational concerns to gain wider support for trilateral cooperation.

Iwaya emphasized his concerns about North Korea' s nuclear and missile development and cooperation with Russia as regional threats, and stressed the importance of pursuing the North's full denuclearization under the U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Iwaya reiterated Japan's condemnation of Russia's war on Ukraine, adding that there is no place in the world for unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force, a subtle message about China's growing assertiveness in the region.

Wang said that China supports the formation of a mutual regional economy and proposed further efforts toward resuming talks on an economic framework for the three countries and promoting an expansion of the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP.

Wang said trilateral cooperation in a range of areas including technology, climate exchange and other issues will “serve as key driving force for East Asian cooperation.”

The meeting on Saturday focuses on plans for a trilateral leaders' summit later this year amid growing political and economic uncertainty at home and challenges from U.S. President Donald Trump.

The three-way meetings are an accomplishment for Japan, which has historical and territorial disputes with both China and South Korea. Iwaya said he hoped to accelerate efforts toward achieving a leaders' summit in Japan later this year. An earlier trilateral meeting was held in South Korea last year.

Cho, whose country chaired their leaders’ first summit after a four-and-half-year hiatus due to the pandemic, said the ongoing global crisis makes trilateral cooperation more important than ever.

Later Saturday, delegations from Japan and China met separately to hold their first high-level economic dialogue since April 2019, attended by dozens of officials from economy, transportation, environment, health and labor as well as the finance ministries.

In his opening remarks, Wang said expanding cooperation into new areas and strengthening of communication are key to promoting comprehensive and mutually strategic relations between the two countries.

But he said that there is a long way for the recovery of the global economy, and noted that the global economy is facing serious changes, as unilateralism and protectionism has accelerated and politicizing of science and technology, as well as expansion of national security have become rampant.

Discussions at the economic dialogue were to include China's ban on Japanese seafood imports since the start in August 2023 of discharges of treated radioactive wastewater into the sea from the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Iwaya and Wang also held separate bilateral talks with Cho.

U.S. allies Japan and South Korea have rapidly improved ties, as they share mutual concerns over China’s growing threat in the region.

Tokyo and Beijing agreed in December to improve ties in spite of their differences, including disputes over a group of uninhabited islands that both claim, as well as China's territorial disputes with other countries in the South China Sea.

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Associated Press writer Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.