Seoul [South Korea], May 28: Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and Chinese Premier Li Qiang met on May 27 in the first trilateral meeting after more than four years of hiatus.
According to Yonhap, this summit adopted a joint statement on "win-win" cooperation initiatives in 6 areas including economics and trade, sustainable development, public health, and science. and technology, safety and disaster management, and people-to-people exchanges.
Economy was the focus of discussion in the meeting between leaders. Accordingly, the three leaders committed to accelerating negotiations to sign a free trade agreement ( FTA ), which stalled in early 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The leaders agreed to regularly hold summits and ministerial-level meetings, and reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining open markets, promoting investment and stabilizing supply chains amid tensions. geopolitics, natural disasters and epidemics. However, the prospects for China-Japan-Korea economic negotiations are still very bleak.
At the previous bilateral meeting on May 26, Mr. Kishida asked China to lift the ban on importing Japanese seafood, but Mr. Ly expressed concern about waste discharges from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The joint statement also stated: "We reiterate our stance on peace and stability in the region, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the kidnapping issue. We agree to continue active efforts to resolve political solution to the Korean Peninsula issue". The statement did not directly mention North Korea or the island of Taiwan.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
