Japan, South Korea, China agree to promote cooperation

Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya (C), China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul attend the 11th Trilateral Foreign Minister’s Meeting (Japan-China-ROK) in Tokyo on March 22, 2025. Japan, China and South Korea’s top diplomats hold talks in Tokyo on March 22, aiming to bolster cooperation at a time when US trade tariffs are looming over the region. The meeting follows a trilateral summit in May in Seoul where the neighbors agreed to deepen trade ties. (Photo by Rodrigo Reyes Marin / POOL / AFP)

Japan, South Korea and China agreed Saturday that peace on the Korean peninsula was a shared responsibility, Seoul’s foreign minister said, in a meeting of the three countries’ top diplomats in which they pledged to promote cooperation.

The talks followed a rare trilateral summit in May in Seoul where the neighbors — driven by historical and territorial disputes — agreed to deepen ties and restated their goal of a denuclearized Korean peninsula.

But they come as US trade tariffs loom over the region, and as concerns mount over North Korea’s weapons tests and its deployment of troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“We reaffirmed that maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula is a shared interest and responsibility of the three countries,” South Korea’s Cho Tae-yul said Saturday.

“Additionally, I stressed that illegal military cooperation between Russia and North Korea must be immediately halted,” he said.

Seoul and Tokyo typically take a stronger line against North Korea than China, which remains one of Pyongyang’s most important allies and economic benefactors.

Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya said he, Cho and China’s Wang Yi “had a frank exchange of views on trilateral cooperation and regional international affairs… and confirmed that we will promote future-orientated cooperation.”

“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 Saturday’s 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.

Wang said this year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, and “only by sincerely reflecting on history can we better build the future.”

Strengthening cooperation will allow the countries “to jointly resist risks” as well as promote “mutual understanding” between their populations, he added.

New economic opportunities

Ukraine was also on the agenda Saturday, with Iwaya warning that unilaterally changing the status quo by force was unacceptable anywhere.

“On the situation in Ukraine, I emphasized the need for the international community to unite in calling out that any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo by force will not be tolerated anywhere in the world,” he told reporters.

Climate change, ageing populations and trade were among the broad topics officials had said would be discussed on Saturday, as well as working together on disaster relief as well as science and technology.

China and to a lesser extent South Korea and Japan have been hit by tariffs put in place by US President Donald Trump in recent weeks.

But none of the ministers addressed the issue directly in their statements to the press.

Iwaya said the trio had “agreed to accelerate coordination for the next summit” between the countries’ leaders.

The foreign minister will also hold bilateral talks with both counterparts Saturday, while Japan and China will have their first so-called “high-level economic dialogue” in six years.

Patricia M. Kim, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said while “trilateral dialogues have been ongoing for over a decade,” this round “carries heightened significance” due to the new US position.

“Their leaders are under growing pressure to diversify their options and to seek alternative economic opportunities,” she told AFP.

Beijing “has been working actively to improve relations with other major and middle powers amid growing frictions with the United States,” she added.