South Korea, Japan and China are to launch a joint council this year to deal with various diplomatic and history issues that continue to adversely affect their relations, a South Korean official said Sunday.
The agreement to establish the diplomatic council came at a three-way summit between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Ministe Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of their summit with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) here.
"President Roh, Chinese Prime Minister Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Abe agreed to establish a high-level council between the three countries' foreign ministries to closely deal with regional and international issues, including the North Korean nuclear issue, as well as other political and diplomatic issues in the region," Roh's spokesman Yoon Seong-yong told reporters.
The three-way council is to include high-ranking Foreign Ministry officials from the three nations, according to Yoon.
The first meeting of the envisioned body would be held this year in China, Yoon said, with the details and agenda to be set in future consultations.
The new council, to be convened annually, is expected to boost cooperation while providing a joint dialogue channel for the nations, whose bilateral and multilateral relations with each another have often been strained by a number of disputes over their shared past as well as seas.
South Korea's Foreign Minister Song Min-soon proposed holding annual meetings of foreign ministers from the three countries in a three-way meeting Friday with his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing and Japan's Senior Vice Foreign Minister Katsuhito Asano.
Roh's spokesman said the leaders of South Korea and Japan and the Chinese prime minister in Sunday's three-way summit confirmed the need to establish regular dialogue between their countries' foreign ministers.
"The heads of the three countries agreed to expand their energy-related dialogue to find realistic ways to increase cooperation in the related field," Yoon said.
"They also agreed to regularly hold talks between foreign ministers of the three nations to foster and speed up cooperation between the three," the spokesman added.
The meeting of foreign ministers is to come from an expansion of what is currently known as the Three-Party Committee of South Korea, Japan and China, which brings together foreign ministers of the three Northeast Asian nations, but only irregularly ahead of international forums such as the summit of ASEAN and the three countries.
Seoul is to host the first annual meeting of foreign ministers before the end of this year, according to officials at the South Korean Foreign Ministry.
Cebu, Philippines, Jan. 14 (Yonhap News)
S. Korea, Japan and China to launch joint council on diplomatic issues |
