The trilateral meeting in Tokyo is an accomplishment for Japan, which has historical and territorial disputes with China and South Korea.
The foreign ministers of Japan, South Korea and China have agreed on the need to seek common ground on East Asian security and economic issues amid escalating global uncertainty.
Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and South Korea’s Cho Tae-yul have agreed to tackle multigenerational concerns to gain broader support for cooperation, Iwaya said in a joint news conference in Tokyo on Saturday.
The first gathering of the countries’ foreign ministers since 2023 comes as United States President Donald Trump upends decades-old alliances, potentially opening the door for China to forge closer ties to countries traditionally aligned with Washington.
“The international situation has become increasingly severe, and it is no exaggeration to say that we are at a turning point in history,” Iwaya said at the start of the meeting.
“In this context, it has become more important than ever to make efforts to overcome division and confrontation through dialogue and cooperation,” he said.
The three-way meeting is an accomplishment for Japan, which has historical and territorial disputes with both China and South Korea. An earlier trilateral meeting was held in South Korea last year.
China’s Wang said that as this year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, “only by sincerely reflecting on history can we better build the future”.
He said China supports strengthening cooperation, allowing the countries “to jointly resist risks” and promoting “mutual understanding” between their populations.
“Our three nations have a combined population of nearly 1.6 billion and an economic output exceeding $24 trillion. With our vast markets and great potential, we can exert significant influence,” Wang said.
China, he added, wants to resume free trade talks with its neighbours and expand membership of the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
Reporting from Tokyo, Al Jazeera’s Fadi Salameh said the meetings aim to “build confidence between these three countries”.
“But still, there are so many differences and issues that divide the three countries,” Salameh said.
“Mr Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, mentioned that the three countries – maybe targeting Japan with this point – should be honest about the historical issues that divided [them],” Salameh explained, referring to Yi’s mention of World War II and Japan’s war of aggression.
Beijing is at odds with Tokyo and Seoul on several other key issues, including its support of North Korea, its intensifying military activity around Taiwan, and its backing of Russia in its war with Ukraine.
US allies Japan and South Korea, which each host thousands of US soldiers, share Washington’s view that China – the world’s second-largest economy – poses a growing threat to regional security.
Cho said he had asked China in the meeting to help persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.
“I also stressed that illegal military cooperation between Russia and North Korea should stop immediately, and that North Korea should not be rewarded for its wrongdoings in the course of bringing about the end of the war in Ukraine,” he added.
Iwaya is to meet separately with his Chinese and South Korean counterparts, including for the first high-level economic dialogue with Beijing in six years.
That meeting will include a discussion of a ban on Japanese seafood imports imposed by China after the release of wastewater from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant from 2023, Iwaya said this week.