Return of China-Japan-South Korea talks brings hope of de-escalation

Seoul and Tokyo, by contrast, denounced Pyongyang’s satellite launch plans, which violate UN sanctions and undermine the Korean peninsula’s stability. The diverging security visions confirmed the challenge of harmonising the trio’s regional priorities.

Despite such fissures, the summit sketched out blueprints for deeper cooperation. First, through more corporate engagement. Over 280 business officials and ministers convened a meeting on the summit sidelines, emerging with pledges to facilitate cross-border commercial ties and establish a permanent working group.

The joint leaders’ statement also welcomed the convening of the Trilateral Entrepreneurs Forum in 2024, organised by the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat, an international organisation established by the three governments in 2011.

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Trade and Taiwan discussed at 3-way summit for Chinese, Japanese and South Korean leaders

Bringing business stakeholders into the process injects bottom-up perspectives focused more on shared economic interests than top-down wrangling over military tensions.

Tangible cooperation on such significant yet relatively apolitical issues could help restore perceptions of China as a trustworthy partner.

Such diplomatic heavy lifting is imperative after years of deteriorating regional trust. Only by first establishing basic habits of cooperation and the promised people-to-people ties can the more glamorous vision laid out at the summit – of the trilateral partners collectively engaging with other entities like Asean or Pacific Island nations – become plausible.

Third and most fundamental is the imperative of simply maintaining open channels for dialogue between Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo. Even when breakthroughs prove elusive, the mere act of