China, Japan, South Korea agree to revive summit at ‘earliest convenient time’
- Senior officials from neighbouring countries hold talks in Seoul and agree trilateral cooperation is in ‘common interests’, Beijing says
- Ministry spokesman did not say when foreign ministers will meet or when the leaders’ summit – suspended since 2019 – will be held
The foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea will soon meet and a long-stalled summit will resume at the “earliest convenient time”, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said an agreement to revive the three-way summit – which has been suspended since 2019 – was reached during talks between senior officials in Seoul earlier in the day.
Nong Rong, China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs, and his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, Chung Byung-won and Takehiro Funakoshi, attended the meeting.
“The three sides held in-depth discussions on promoting the steady relaunch of China-Japan-South Korea cooperation, and agreed that the development of three-way cooperation is in the common interests of the three sides,” Wang told a regular press briefing in Beijing on Tuesday.
He did not say when the countries’ foreign ministers would meet or when a leaders’ summit would be held.
Wang said the three sides had agreed to strengthen people-to-people exchanges, and cooperation on the economy and trade, as well as science, technology and innovation, sustainable development, and public health.
The first trilateral summit was held in 2008 but it has been suspended since the coronavirus pandemic began and amid strained ties between the neighbouring countries.