After three year gap Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing restart talks
Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and China have held their first meeting in three years today in Seoul, in an attempt to ease tension regarding territorial and diplomatic disputes, and restore the annual trilateral summit. The last was held in April 2012.
The meeting was also an opportunity to discuss a possible
participation of Tokyo and Seoul in the development bank led by Beijing (Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank, AIIB), and South Korea's hosting of a US air
defense system to counter the North Korea missile threat (Terminal High
Altitude Area Defense, Thaad).
Despite the assurance of Seoul and Washington, Beijing is suspicious of Thaad,
considering it a threat to its security.
In 2013, the trilateral summit was canceled after yet another visit by then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the Yasukuni national shrine, where - among the 2.5 million dead of the Second World War - 14 war criminals are remembered. An affront to China and Korea, which were occupied by Japan in the years before the conflict.
Added to this "error" is the traditional dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea claimed by both China and Japan. The archipelago has a particular strategic value, as it is located on most important shipping route. For some, however, its real "treasure" is the endless gas fields in the subsoil.
Japan also contends a small group of islands with South
Korea: they are the Dodko/Takeshima, almost equidistant from the two nations, but the sea around them is rich
in fish.
In an 90 minute meeting that preceded the trilateral summit, Japan and South
Korea agreed to work to reduce the tensions triggered by historical issues
dating to wartime. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of
diplomatic relations. "Despite difficult issues
between the two countries - told Japanese Minister Fumio Kishida the
press - the two sides will continue communicating at
various levels in order to strengthen our co-operation."
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