China, Japan, S. Korea should work to make differences managable

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida (C), Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) and South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se pose for the photographers prior to the official banquet of the trilateral foreign minister's meeting in Tokyo, Japan, August 23, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

BEIJING - As foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea are to meet in Tokyo Wednesday, the three major Asian powers should work together to make their differences controllable.

The final date of the eighth trilateral foreign ministers' meeting, the second gathering since the talks resumed in March 2015 after a three-year hiatus, was not released until Monday afternoon.

Although high-ranking diplomats of the three countries had met in Tokyo for final deliberations about whether to hold such a trilateral meeting this month, there has been pessimism until Monday that the meeting could be postponed.

The tortuous process of nailing down a trilateral foreign ministers' meeting nine years after the first of its kind was held in 2007 implies that differences on regional issues have been haunting relations among China, Japan and South Korea.

Tokyo's illegal claim for the ownership of the China-owned Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, its interference in the disputes over South China Sea islands, as well as its unrepentant attitude toward the crimes it committed in World War II, have gravely damaged its relations with Beijing.

Besides, Seoul's acceptance of US deploying a missile defense system, whose X-band radar can peer deep into China and Russia, on its soil has greatly threatened the strategic interests of the two countries and undermined regional stability.