PRESS RELEASE
Despite Tensions, Chinese, Japanese and South Korean Foreign Ministers Meet and Commit to Future Collaboration
Aug. 24, 2016 (EIRNS)—Despite the many well-known tensions among them, the Foreign Ministers of China, Japan, and South Korea met in Tokyo yesterday, to discuss regional as well as bilateral issues, and to establish a basis for continued cooperation in a region rife with U.S. and British imperial provocations. It wasn’t clear until late Monday that the meeting would take place, and there was no joint communique issued at the end. Nonetheless, progress was made. China’s Wang Yi, Japan’s Fumio Kishida, and Yun Byung of South Korea pledged to bring their heads-of-state together for a trilateral summit by the end of this year.
Just before the summit began, North Korea test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile, which fell into the Sea of Japan, within Japan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), Xinhua reported today. In this context, all three ministers stated their commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Wang Yi underscored, that nuclear issues must be settled through dialogue and negotiations.
On the sidelines of the summit, each of the foreign ministers held bilateral meetings with his counterpart from the other two countries, described, in some cases, as quite tense, given several festering issues. However, in the joint press conference of the three, Kishida stated that "there are various issues among the three countries, but we have to overcome that with our political wisdom." Wang Yi added, that
"despite the issues the three countries have, we have an important responsibility for the peace and stability of the region. We would like to enhance our cooperation by overcoming the difficulties,"
The Japan Times reported.
The upcoming G-20 summit was also discussed, and in remarks quoted by Xinhua, Wang Yi said that China wants to strengthen cooperation and communication with Japan and South Korea
"to make the summit a conference that boosts confidence, helps build consensus, guides future directions, and makes due contribution to promoting world economic development and improving global economic governance."
The three countries, he said,
"should shoulder the responsibility of promoting economic development in East Asia, taking the lead in regional cooperation in East Asia and maintaining regional peace and stability so as to make greater contributions to the overall revitalization of Asia as well as to world peace and development."
All three foreign ministers pledged to make concerted efforts to ensure the success of the G20 summit. "China, South Korea and Japan," Wang Yi affirmed, "should develop their relations in the spirit of taking history as a mirror and looking to the future."
