‘Restarting The Trilateral Is Only Intended To Bring Down Political Tensions’

NEW DELHI: The Japan Korea China Trilateral is resuming after a gap of four years, but it’s not clear when. The trilateral dates back to 2008 and was set up to bring the heavyweights of North-east Asia on a common platform to discuss political and economic issues, boost cooperation. But as scholar and Japan specialist Gaurav Dutta noted on The Gist, the decision to resume the trilateral level meetings does not mean their differences are over and done with. Japan and Korea have differences that date back to the former’s colonisation of the latter in 1910, a period that lasted until the end of World War II. In China too, memories of Japan’s colonial rule from 1941 to 1945 fester although both sides do billions of dollars in trade and have strong people to people links. The effort now is to bring down the level of political tensions and ensure military to military communications. At the end of the day, nobody wants a war. But economic and technology sanctions on China are expected to continue. Tune in for more in this conversation with Gaurav Dutta.