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Japan, China, ROK should expand ties

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-17 07:45

We want to see the multilayered cooperative ties among three major Asian nations -Japan, China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) - continue to advance.

The foreign ministers of the three nations met in Tokyo on Saturday and agreed that a summit meeting of their leaders should be held in Japan in September.

Summit meetings of Japanese, Chinese and ROK leaders have so far been held on the sidelines of conferences of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It will be first time that the three leaders have held a summit independently.

Japan's bilateral relationships with China and the ROK, which have been soured by such issues as former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine, have steadily been improving. Now is an ideal time to expand the scope of cooperation among Japan, China and the ROK.

The Japan-China-ROK summit was launched in 1999 as an informal breakfast meeting in Manila, with the agenda of the summit centered on economic issues.

Since then, it has been made a regular meeting, with political issues added to the agenda. With the framework of cooperation among the three nations expanded, the three-nation forum now has 12 kinds of ministerial meetings on issues related to trade, financial policy, health, energy, environment, and science and technology. If meetings of administrative vice-ministers and bureau chiefs are included, the number of such meetings reaches more than 40.

The framework of talks among Japan, the ROK and the United States or Japan, Australia and the United States are based on the alliance's relationship with Washington and dedicated to political and security issues.

For Japan, no trilateral relationship has more wide-ranging areas for cooperation than the Japan-China-ROK relationship.

There are many issues that could better be handled through trilateral cooperative mechanisms rather than bilateral ones, such as dealing with the emergence of new types of influenza, seaborne garbage that reaches the shores of the three nations as well as securing fishing resources.

If the three nations can deepen their relationship of trust, it will certainly have a favorable effect on the respective bilateral relationships.

At the foreign ministerial talks, Japan, China and the ROK affirmed that they will cooperate closely on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s nuclear issues, policies toward Africa and disaster countermeasures.

Japan must seek deeper understanding and cooperation from both China and the ROK over that issue, in addition to support from the US.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

(China Daily 06/17/2008 page9)