Japan, S. Korea, China Set Aside Tensions to Vow Cooperation
- Three to seek free-trade deal as trilateral talks revived
- Economic, security threats start to trump historical animosity
Abe, Park and Li at the trilateral summit in Seoul on Saturday.
Photographer: Kim Hong-Ji-Pool/Getty ImagesAfter three years of strained relations, the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea declared cooperation was “completely” restored as the need to shore up their flagging economies and respond to a nuclear-armed North Korea trumped historical animosities.
The pledge to cooperate “unwaveringly” came at a meeting between South Korean President Park Geun Hye, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Seoul, the first trilateral summit since 2012. Even as South Korea and China drew closer under Park, the once-annual trilateral gatherings ground to a halt given tensions with Japan over territory and the legacy of World War II"