What’s new: The foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea agreed to work toward resuming a trilateral leaders’ summit, after a four-year hiatus triggered by the Covid pandemic and soured relations.
“The three sides agreed to create conditions for the China-Japan-South Korea leaders' meeting” at a meeting of the countries’ top diplomats in Busan, South Korea on Sunday, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
During the meeting, Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the three parties to restart negotiations on free trade agreement as soon as possible, adding that China will work to bring trilateral cooperation “back on track,” according to the statement.
Wang also called for the three countries to strengthen cooperation in fields including advanced technology, such as big data and artificial intelligence, as well as climate change and coping with an aging society.
What’s more: As the host of the 10th trilateral meeting of the countries’ foreign ministers, South Korea’s Park Jin said the three ministers agreed to “restore and normalize three-nation cooperation at an early date” and expedite preparations for the leaders’ summit, according to a report from the Associated Press.
Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikawa Yoko also stressed the importance of cooperation in people-to-people exchange during the hour-and-a-half meeting, according to a statement from the Japanese foreign ministry.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
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