Backgrounder: China-Japan-S. Korea trilateral leader´s meeting

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Source: CCTV.com | 01-15-2007 09:00

As we just mentioned, the trilateral leaders' meeting between China, Japan, and South Korea is taking place on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit. The last meeting was held in 2005.

Handshakes like this have taken place on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit --every year -- since 1999. In the first two years, leaders from China, Japan and South Korea met at informal breakfast meetings. In 2001, this evolved into a formal summit. Experts see this as a necessary development.

Jiang Lifeng, director institute of Japanese studies, CASS, said, "Problems in Southeast Asia can be solved under the framework of ASEAN. But in the Northeast, there is no such organization despite various problems. China, Japan and South Korea the most important countries in Northeast Asia all have very close ties with ASEAN. So it's good to strengthen trilateral ties between the three countries on the sidelines of ASEAN."

As the situation in East Asia changes, the focus of the meetings between the leaders of the three countries also varies from year to year. Working to strengthen economic ties, combating terrorism or infectious diseases, and ensuring maritime safety.

However, the planned seventh summit in 2005 was cancelled.

Jiang Lifeng, said, "Former Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi continued his visits to the Yasukuni Shrine for years. This has blocked the development of Sino-Japanese and South Korean-Japanese relations. China and South Korea lost political trust in Japan. Even if the meetings had continued, they wouldn't have resulted in any significant achievement."

Newly elected Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe broke the ice at the end of last year. Only two weeks after taking office, Abe came to China on his first overseas trip. He then went to South Korea. This was the first visit by a Japanese Prime Minister to China in over five years. Abe said he would "act appropriately" and apologized for Japan's wartime brutality. But he stopped short of saying whether he would visit the Yasukuni Shrine.

"Positive steps made by Shinzo Abe in the fence-mending process with China and South Korea have helped to clear the way for the resumption of this meeting.

And, so far, he's been demonstrating much more respect for his Asian neighbors than his predecessor. Hopefully, relations between China and Japan, and South Korea and Japan will continue to improve smoothly.

Editor:Du Xiaodan