The fruitful outcomes of the meeting between visiting Chinese Premier Li Qiang with Republic of Korea President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Seoul on Sunday and Monday send encouraging notes for East Asia peace and development, according to experts.

The three sides issued the Joint Declaration of the Ninth China-Japan-ROK Trilateral Summit, the Joint Statement on a 10 Year Vision for Trilateral IP Cooperation, and the Joint Statement on Future Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, Xinhua reported.

Woo Su-keun, head of the Institute of East Asian Studies of Korea and president of the Korea-China Global Association, noted that the three countries chose the path of coexistence and a community with shared future instead of confrontation and division.

It is necessary for the three East Asian countries to have a free trade agreement of their own to further open up their market and promote exchanges not only in goods, but also in the service and finance sectors, said An

ROK, China and Japan have very different positions but they showed wisdom by choosing to calmly discuss the areas that are difficult to approach and to focus on areas that are relatively easy to approach and to discuss and agree on cooperation and coordination, Woo said, adding that this will create a more favorable environment to allow dialogues and cooperative frameworks to proceed in the future.

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Considering the importance of the three countries in East Asia, various trilateral and bilateral agreements can be considered as a very important foundation for preventing and easing regional tension, and for coexistence and mutual benefit based on stability and cooperation, Woo said.

In the joint declaration, the leaders expressed their hope that the three countries will resume the trilateral FTA negotiations.

“It is of great significance that the leaders of the three countries re-emphasized the need to accelerate negotiations on a free trade agreement,” said An Yuhua, a member of the Policy Advisory Committee of the Overseas Koreans Division at South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

China, South Korea and Japan have already formed cooperation under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership but An said since this framework includes some Southeast Asian countries that are in different development stages, the level of free trade is limited especially when it comes to the service and finance sectors.

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It is necessary for the three East Asian countries to have a free trade agreement of their own to further open up their market and promote exchanges not only in goods, but also in the service and finance sectors, said An.

“Since the first China-South Korea-Japan free trade negotiations were launched in 2012 … a total of 16 rounds of negotiations have been held,” said An.

Though the negotiations were suspended in 2019 during the pandemic, An said the topic was brought up in almost all high-level meetings among the three countries, which showed the three countries share the consensus that it is necessary to have a free trade agreement.

Noting South Korea is an export-oriented country, An said the South Korean government has paid great attention to the trilateral free trade agreement with China and Japan.

An said a trilateral free trade agreement between China, South Korea and Japan will further unleash the trade potential in the region

“China is a big market and is leading in many sectors such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy and cross-border e-commerce, so economic cooperation with China is important to South Korea,” said An.

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An said a trilateral free trade agreement between China, South Korea and Japan will further unleash the trade potential in the region.

“Though the trade volume among the three countries has exceeded $700 billion, it is still relevant small when compared to the size of their economy,” said An, noting existing challenges in regulations and non-tariff barriers. “There is a huge potential in future trade.”

Premier Li also said on Monday that China, Japan and South Korea should stay committed to the original aspiration for cooperation.

Japan and ROK each have different challenges in their relations with China, particularly in terms of security. Tokyo should promote mutual understanding and cooperation with Beijing peacefully and pursue ways to avoid military conflict, said Ukeru Magosaki, a former senior official with Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The United States aims to form a containment network against China, he said.

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“If movements to counter China in military and economic areas intensify, it will increase tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, and it will by no means be beneficial for the safety and development of East Asia,” said Magosaki, co-representative of the Association for Inheriting and Propagating the Murayama Statement, a Japanese civic group dedicated to upholding the 1995 Murayama Statement that admits Japan’s wartime mistakes.

Woo said South Korea, China and Japan have very different positions but they showed wisdom by choosing to calmly discuss the areas that are difficult to approach and to focus on areas that are relatively easy to approach and to discuss and agree on cooperation and coordination

Woo said South Korea, China and Japan have very different positions but they showed wisdom by choosing to calmly discuss the areas that are difficult to approach and to focus on areas that are relatively easy to approach and to discuss and agree on cooperation and coordination. “I think this will create a more favorable environment to allow dialogues and cooperative frameworks to proceed in the future,” he told China Daily.

It is no doubt that the three countries are the most important countries in East Asia. They pledged to actively strengthen cooperation in various aspects, including the establishment of various high-level consultative bodies, Woo said.

Woo noted that ROK and China had in the past made attempts to establish direct dialogue in foreign affairs and security but did not realize that due to various reasons.

The newly established diplomatic and security dialogue, namely the ROK-China "2+2" dialogue on diplomacy and security at the vice-ministerial level, will allow the two countries to directly engage in dialogue and consultation in the field of foreign affairs and security, along with the existing “1.5 track” mechanism and the strategic dialogue between foreign ministries.

Contact the writers at kelly@chinadailyapac.com