China-Japan-ROK summit to open new chapter in cooperation

COMMUNITY OF COMMON DESTINY

China, Japan and South Korea are close neighbors and leading players in Asia. Their population accounts for 70 percent of the East Asian total, and their GDP makes up 70 percent of the whole Asian economic output.

"So China-Japan-South Korea cooperation is important not only to the three countries themselves but also to the whole Asia and Asia-Pacific," said Jiang Ruiping, deputy director of China Foreign Affairs University.

The upcoming summit is set to discuss international production capacity cooperation, technological innovation, alignment of development initiatives, free trade talks and regional economic integration, among other topics.

The three sides will have an in-depth exchange of views, reach extensive consensus and push forward their cooperation towards higher levels, broader areas, larger scales and a more diversified and optimized structure, said Chinese Assistant Minister of Commerce Tong Daochi at a recent press briefing.

Following the summit, they are expected to release joint statements on cooperation in such areas as agriculture, trade and environment and make remarks on historical issues.

Noting that East Asia is now the most economically dynamic region in the world, but China-Japan-South Korea cooperation, a major engine of regional development, has been hindered by political and diplomatic issues, Woody Han, director of South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo China Institute, said he hopes the summit will restore the development vigor of East Asia.

In the eyes of Prof. Kumiko Haba of Japan's Aoyama Gakuin University, the meeting should serve as an opportunity to expand trilateral exchanges of scholars and the general public, which will form the biggest guarantee for peace and prosperity.

Atsushi Kouketsu, a deputy head of Japan's Yamaguchi University, urged the three countries to seize the momentum and regularize their leaders' meetings once again while committing themselves to foster friendly relations and prepare for the building of a EU-like Asian community of common destiny in the future.