Historic summit for Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul
Although the leaders of the three countries have met regularly since 1999 at the annual meetings of the ten-nation Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) where all three nations are present as observers, the Fukuoka meeting is in fact a first in the history of the three countries. In fact bilateral squabbles over territorial issues and historical questions had prevented an actual three-way summit of East Asia’s three most influential nations.
“The fact that the Asian neighbours had never met in this form prior to today is odd,” Keio University professor Masao Okonogi said. “Although the economic crisis may have played a role, this meeting will hopefully become the first step for all sides to look beyond current issues and into the future.”
Still pessimists are trying to downplay the meeting because there is not much in the three leaders’ joint communiqué. However, what matters is that the three governments were able to put aside nationalist considerations and meet to discuss global and regional problems.
“It is significant that the three countries work hand in hand to make progress,” Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said after the summit.
“Today's talks during the summit had a great outcome, and I thank Japan for its efforts in preparing the event,” Wen Jiabao said.
It is clear from a statement made by Japanese foreign ministry official that Hu Jintao was keen on having this trilateral meeting take place.
For The Korea Times one might even have to thank the global financial disaster for finally bringing the three neighbours together, who are joined by geography and economic interest but so much divided by nationalist divisions.
For Masao Okonogi Saturday's meeting was an occasion for East Asia to stand on its own two feet, independent from the United States and show the world what it could do solve global problems. Increasingly Japan, China and South Korea are became aware that they are going to be called to play a role in world governance and that they can do it.
Put together Japan, China and South Korea represent 75 per cent of East Asia’s GDP and 17 per cent of the world’s GDP, which is equal to that of Germany, Great Britain and France combined. However, their foreign currency reserves are three times that of the largest European economies.
Naturally Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul agreed to the summit for their own reasons, especially China. The country’s huge foreign exchange reserves come from exports to markets in rich nations. And the current world financial crisis is biting into its exports; hence its interest in involving the other two Asian nations in finding a solution to the crisis.
But this is only one aspect of the tripartite summit. There are international issues like African development, North Korea’s nuclear problem and Asian security.
Speaking for their respective countries, the three leaders expressed a desire to work together to solve these and other global problems. The financial crisis did not create this desire; it only brought out into the open.
The attempt to build a joint approach was nine years in the making, and this despite painful bilateral frictions.
Former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, a Catholic, was the trailblazer in the matter, according to the editorial page of Japan’s renowned Asahi newspaper. Back in 1999 he had warned against exclusive regionalism, but insisted that in the context of globalisation cooperative regionalism was necessary. The real significance of the Fukuoka meeting lies in this ideal.
Despite political differences with his predecessor, current South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is set to follow in his footsteps.
In fact it was Mr Lee who back in October suggested a summit be held; an invitation initially met with lukewarm if not outright hostilities in Japan where the government was still under the sway of nationalist sentiments.
What the world crisis did was to remove whatever emotional hang-ups there were.
In their joint final statement the three leaders announced their intention to hold the summit each year, hosted by each nation on a rotating basis.
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