China hosts Japan, South Korea ministers in bid to smooth row
Print Edition
THE foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea met in Beijing yesterday at a time of tense relations between Tokyo and Seoul over trade.
In talks with Japan’s Taro Kono and South Korea’s Kang Kyung-wha, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China will work with the two countries to maintain multilateralism and free trade and commit to the region’s stability.
China also used the trilateral meeting to reiterate its opposition to either Japan or South Korea playing host to new US intermediate-range ballistic missiles that Washington plans to deploy to the region as soon as possible after leaving the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty earlier this month.
China has also said it will punish any country that does so, and Chinese state media said Wang brought up the issue in separate meetings with Kono and Kang on Tuesday.
The meetings also gave Japan and South Korea a chance to hold bilateral talks on easing their recent tensions.
Ties between Japan and South Korea have been strained since Japan tightened export controls on key materials for South Korea’s semiconductor industry and decided to downgrade the nation’s trade status.
Seoul accuses Tokyo of weaponizing trade to retaliate for political rows over wartime history.
The row threatens to upset economic security in northeast Asia, as well as Washington’s hopes for military cooperation between its two treaty allies.
While Taro called for cooperation among the three despite the feud, Kang attacked Japan over its export controls, according to Japanese news reports. At a news conference, however, both sides appeared eager to downplay the dispute.
“It is inevitable that sometimes the bilateral relations among us have some difficulties,” Kono said.
“The three of us have important responsibility for the stability and prosperity of the region and the whole world and the cooperation among us will definitely make major contributions in this regard.”
Kang said the Japan-South Korea dispute shouldn’t be allowed to affect trilateral relations.
“In order that the three-way cooperation can be developed in a stable way without being affected by the bilateral relations, we should enrich the contents of the exchanges among the three countries and let the people of the three countries feel the benefit from such cooperation,” Kang said.
Despite their close economic interdependence, ties between the three have often been fraught over trade frictions, the role of the US and lingering resentment over Japan’s colonial legacy and World War II aggression.
Jun Saito, Kono’s spokesman for the China trip, said Kono expressed his deep concern about the situation in Hong Kong, where protesters have been facing off against police for more than two months.
“He expressed his strong expectations that the situation will be under control as soon as possible.
“He said he considered it important that under ‘one country, two systems,’ a free and open Hong Kong should enjoy prosperity,” Saito said.
Kono said the two sides also discussed arrangements for a state visit to Japan by Chinese President Xi Jinping next year.
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