The leaders of South Korea, China, and Japan issued a joint declaration on Monday, reaffirming a common interest and responsibility to maintain peace, stability and prosperity on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia. China’s Premier Li Qiang, Korea’s Yoon Suk-Yol and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida also reiterated their respective positions on denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the issue of their nationals abducted by North Korea.
North Korea condemned the discussions on denuclearization that took place at the summit, calling them a grave provocation. This reaction was reported by North Korea’s official KCNA media outlet.
The Trilateral summit discussions covered trade, climate change, and addressing the challenges of ageing societies. This is the first three-way summit in four years. It’s not clear if Japan raised the issue of Chinese naval and coast guard vessels intruding into Japanese territorial waters to signal Beijing’s claims to the Senkaku Islands. But the summit is expected to push both sides into stepping back from confrontanist postures and at least agree to disagree.
Here are some of the main agreements from the declaration:
TRILATERAL COOPERATION
The countries will strive to hold the trilateral summit and ministerial meetings on a regular basis, and work to ensure that people in the three countries “can enjoy substantive benefits emanating from this cooperation”. Japan will host the next summit.
PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE EXCHANGES
They aim to boost the number of people-to-people exchanges to 40 million by 2030 through exchanges in culture, tourism and education.
CLIMATE CHANGE
The three recognised a need to work together in transitioning toward net zero greenhouse gas emissions and carbon neutrality. They pledged to take solid action and support efforts to achieve the Paris Agreement temperature goal.
CONSERVATION
They agreed to collaborate to reduce dust and sandstorms in East Asia. They will also promote marine conservation and work to complete an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, as well as curb illegal fishing.
ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND TRADE
The countries agreed to back discussions for speeding up negotiations for a trilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
They reaffirmed support for an open, rules-based multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organization (WTO) at its core.
“We will continue to work to ensure a global level playing field to foster a free, open, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent, inclusive, and predictable trade and investment environment,” they said.
The countries reaffirmed their commitment to keeping markets open and boosting supply chain cooperation.
HEALTH AND AGEING
The countries adopted a joint statement on preventing future pandemics. They also agreed to jointly tackle challenges over low birth rates and ageing societies through exchanges between the governments and experts.
With Inputs From Reuters
