Photo/Illutration A meeting among Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Chinese Premier Li Qiang and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at the state guest house in Seoul on May 27 (Koichi Ueda)

The three East Asian nations of Japan, China, and South Korea all benefit from an open international order and share common domestic policy challenges.

The latest meeting of their leaders itself should not be seen as the best that can be achieved right now. Tokyo, Beijing and Seoul should continue efforts to nurture the summit into a framework for productive dialogue that contributes to stability in East Asia and the wider world.

The leaders of Japan, China and South Korea met May 27 for the first time in about four and a half years. They agreed to cooperate on promoting free trade, expanding people-to-people exchanges and addressing common policy challenges such as declining birthrates and an aging population.

This framework did not work properly for the past four or so years due to the pandemic and the poor state of bilateral relations. The significance of the three leaders holding face-to-face meetings cannot be overstated.

We welcome the fact that the meeting was held, despite signs of rising tensions in East Asia.

Each country had its own agenda for the meeting. Japan and South Korea, in particular, wanted China to use its clout to curb North Korea’s nuclear and missile development.

Maintaining good relationships with neighboring countries is of growing importance to China in view of its heightened confrontation with the United States. Beijing probably wanted to pull Japan and South Korea back in line, seeing as they are deepening their ties with the United States.

However, differences in approaches on security issues between the Japan-South Korea camp and China became clear. At the outset of the meeting, the leaders of Japan and South Korea criticized North Korea for its announcement that it would launch a military reconnaissance satellite, but China’s Premier, Li Qiang, did not directly mention the matter. 

The joint statement only went as far as saying that the three leaders “reiterated positions on regional peace and stability, denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the abduction issue, respectively.”

At the Japan-China summit held the day before, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Li agreed to accelerate working-level discussions concerning Japan’s decision last year to go ahead with the release into the ocean of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The issue has strained bilateral relations.

While a fundamental solution to the dispute seems unlikely in the near term, the Japan-China-South Korea framework offers the advantage of creating opportunities for such pragmatic dialogue.

Practical agreements under this framework for three-way summits should be accumulated to foster mutual trust, and ideally, these should lead to in-depth and nuanced dialogue among the three nations about security issues over the long term.

Globally, the situation in Ukraine and Gaza has intensified divisions in the international community. There seems to be a growing trend across the world to create coalitions as strategic responses to security crises as well as relying excessively on military deterrence, which is putting diplomatic efforts on the back burner.

Japan, China and South Korea should capitalize on their limited historical entanglements with these conflict regions. All three countries are currently members of the United Nations Security Council and could work together to revitalize the world body’s functions and ability to help resolve conflicts.

Japan will serve as the next chair country in the Japan-China-South Korea framework. There is no denying that the Kishida administration’s push to beef up Japan’s security alignment with the United States has weakened its presence as an unexpected consequence.

It is time for Tokyo to envision a balanced East Asian diplomacy that, while based on the Japan-U.S. alliance, also recognizes Japan’s unique positions, relations and interests.

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 28