외교부

Trilateral Summit Meeting
 
By Yu Myung-hwan Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 
2009.10.8, Korea Times

The summit meeting of South Korea, China and Japan will be held in Beijing, Saturday. It is the second trilateral summit following the one in Fukuoka, Japan, last December.

It has been 10 years since the three Asian powers had a breakfast meeting on the occasion of the ASEAN+3 summit in the Philippines in 1999.

Although the trilateral summit last year was the first to be held in one of the three countries, not on the sidelines of the ASEAN+3 summit, the advances in the trilateral cooperation made in the last decade have indeed been remarkable.

Among the many developments achieved, I would like to underline the progress made with the establishment of the various consultation bodies for trilateral cooperation. At the time of the launch of the first trilateral summit in 1999, it was the only one for cooperation within the ASEAN+3 framework.

However, there are now more than 50 consultation mechanisms for intergovernmental cooperation other than the summit, including the foreign ministers' meeting.

Second, while trilateral cooperation has been gradual, the framework for regional cooperation has steadily been put in place. In 1999, it started only with a common understanding on the need for cooperation.

But we have achieved the adoption of the Joint Declaration on Korea-China-Japan Cooperation in 2003, the Action Strategy in 2004 and the Action Plan in 2008. With these, Korea, China and Japan were able to present the basic principles and direction for the trilateral cooperation.

Third, the scope and areas of trilateral cooperation have expanded greatly.

Currently, the trilateral cooperation encompasses nearly all areas such as the non-governmental joint research on free trade agreements (FTAs), joint response to sand storms, the establishment of shuttle flights between the three countries, youth exchanges and disaster prevention.

There have also been in-depth discussions on important diplomatic issues such as the North Korean nuclear issue.

In particular, there have been remarkable advances in the trilateral exchanges about goods and human exchanges.

The total amount of trade among the three countries quadrupled from approximately $130 billion to $520 billion last year compared to a decade ago, while human exchanges doubled from 6.6 million to 14.3 million.

The sum of the GDP of the three countries doubled compared to that of 1999 to account for one-sixth of the world total, while the sum of foreign exchange reserves has increased six-fold, representing half of the world total.

The above mentioned changes were only made possible with the active and full willingness for cooperation between the three countries.

In particular, Korea played a pivotal role in the promotion of trilateral cooperation as a ``facilitator'' between China and Japan. An exemplary case is the holding of the trilateral summit in one of the three countries, with Korea playing a leading role in proposing the initiative.

However, there is still a long way to go in the trilateral cooperation. Compared to the progress made in other frameworks for regional cooperation, such as the EU and ASEAN, there are still many tasks to be addressed.

In this regard, the trilateral summit in Beijing holds particular importance as it will point the direction and set out the priorities for future progress in concrete ways.

This year's trilateral summit will be an opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved over the last 10 years as well as representing a significant event for establishing a milestone for the next 10.

Accordingly, the ``Joint Statements on the 10th Anniversary" to be adopted by the three leaders do indeed warrant our close attention.

Moreover, the summit meeting will be an opportunity to reaffirm the willingness for the long-term trilateral cooperation among the three countries transcending any domestic political changes in each country.

It will also represent a significant opportunity to newly assert the willingness for cooperation among the three countries, in particular with the new Japanese government emphasizing ``Asia First."

In addition, the summit will be an important stage to demonstrate the role of the three nations in contributing to peace and prosperity not only in the region but elsewhere in the world.

Important issues to be discussed pertain to regional security concerns such as the North Korean nuclear issue, international economic and financial matters, and environmental issues.

Other concrete outcomes that will be decided include the official launch of the Cyber Secretariat, cooperation in the aviation field and the trilateral business summit.

The trilateral cooperation began with a small step but we have made steady progress over the last 10 years. The next decade is expected to be even more fruitful.

Nobody could have imagined that the EU would be such a success when Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer proposed the ECSC in 1950.

It is our hope that the great success of this year's summit meeting will result in further valuable steps toward the next trilateral summit in Korea.