The Progress Report
of the trilateral cooperation among
the People's Republic of
(Adopted on
by the Three-Party Committee in
On 7th October 2003 the leaders of the People's Republic of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea held a summit meeting in Bali, Indonesia and issued a joint declaration for the first time under the title of "The Joint Declaration on the Promotion of Tripartite Cooperation among the People's Republic of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea" (hereinafter referred to as the "Joint Declaration").
The leaders agreed in the Joint Declaration the promotion of cooperation in 14 areas including economy and trade, culture, people-to-people exchanges, and politics and security, as well as the establishment of the Three-Party Committee, which is headed by the foreign ministers of the three countries to study, plan, coordinate and monitor the cooperation activities.
The Joint Declaration further set a task for the Three-Party committee to submit to the annual summit meeting a report on the progress in the cooperation activities based on the Joint Declaration. The first Three-Party Committee meeting was held in June 2004 in
1. Cooperation in Economy
(Creating an Attractive Environment for Trade and Investment)
The three countries have deepened discussions in broad areas necessary to promote trade and investment, and have promoted mutual understanding and cooperation among the three countries either through the trilateral frameworks such as the Three-Party Committee, the Economic and Trade Ministers' Meeting, and the Economic Directors-General' Consultation Meetings, or bilateral arrangements such as the China-Japan Economic Partnership Consultation ,the Japan-Korea High-level Economic Consultation and the Korea-China Joint Economic Committee Meeting, with a view to creating an attractive environment for trade and investment.
The Three-Party Committee meeting in
(Pushing forward the
The three countries' Economic Directors-General' Consultation meeting in October 2004 discussed ways to cooperate toward the WTO ministerial meeting in December 2005 in Hong Kong on the basis of the General Council decision in July 2004.
(Customs, Transportation, and Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine)
In the area of customs, close communications have been made in bilateral frameworks. Bilateral meetings on customs have been held between
As for cooperation in the transportation area, the Northeast Asia Port Directors-General' Meetings have been held since September 2000 so as to improve economic relations through the promotion of mutual understanding among the three countries' port authorities. The participants in the fifth meeting in November 2004 in
In the quarantine area, in the China-Japan bilateral context, the two countries' authorities have conducted discussions since February 2004, from the viewpoint of strengthening the bilateral relations, especially to resume the import of heat-processed poultry meat from
(Protection of Intellectual Property Rights)
At the third Trilateral Meeting among the Commissioners of the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) in November 2003 in
In the trilateral Economic Directors-General' Consultation Meeting in December last year, discussions were held on such issues as the need to enact and apply effective domestic laws to cope with imitations and copies. Also in bilateral framework, such as the China-Japan Economic Partnership Consultation meeting held in
(Settling Economic Disputes)
The three countries have been making efforts to minimize frictions by conducting frank exchanges of views on a broad range of issues in their trilateral economic and trade relations, including those issues in the above, through the bilateral or trilateral frameworks, such as the Three-Party Committee, the Economic and Trade Ministers' Meeting, and other relevant meetings.
(FTA)
The study group of the think-tanks of the three countries has conducted the joint research on the trilateral free trade agreement. The study group submitted to the Trilateral Summit Meeting in 2003 "a report and policy proposal on strengthening the trilateral cooperation" evaluating mainly the economic effects of a feasible trilateral free trade agreement, with a conclusion that the trilateral free trade agreement would bring about substantial macroeconomic effects favorable to the three countries. It also recommended to deepen the joint research by conducting a sector-oriented study on a trilateral FTA with further examining policy and institutional aspects.
This year, the joint study group has started a "sector-oriented study on the economic effect of the tripartite free trade area" by focusing on agriculture, electric machinery manufacturing, and automobile. The results of the study will be submitted, as an interim report form, to this year's Trilateral Summit meeting. The Three-Party Committee meeting held in June this year in
In a bilateral context, the leaders of
(Aviation)
In the aviation area, cooperation has been promoted through bilateral channels.
(Direct Investment)
On the basis of the agreement in the Joint Declaration, the three countries have conducted a joint study on possible modality of trilateral investment arrangements, and the Three-Party Committee meeting held in June this year encouraged the work of the Joint Study Group. The Joint Study Group held four meetings, under the common understanding that the promotion of trilateral investment will increase dynamism of the three countries' domestic economies, strengthen trilateral economic cooperation and contribute to a win-win-win situation for all three countries, and compiled a report, and agreed to report this to the leaders.
The Joint Study Group Report mainly includes the following points. First, promotion of trilateral direct investment will contribute to a win-win-win situation for all three countries as well as to the Northeast Asian economic integration; second, further efforts are needed to promote direct investment based on actual demand and it is vital to deal with specific problems investors cite as investment barriers; third, the business environment should be improved to promote trilateral investment and also a consultation mechanism among the three governments needs to be established to follow up implemented improvements of the business environment and to study additional measures; and fourth, a legal framework should be explored concerning the trilateral investment.
(ICT Industry)
In the information and communications technology area, the working groups and forums on six areas (the next generation Internet (IPv6), 3G and next generation mobile communications, network and information security, telecommunication service policies, digital TV and broadcasting, open source software) held the initial meetings respectively between March and April 2004, in accordance with the agreed Arrangements at the second China-Japan-Korea ICT Ministers' Meeting in September 2003. Based on that, the third Ministers' Meeting was held in July 2004 in
(Environmental Protection)
In the field of environmental protection, the tripartite cooperation has been making major progress in a broad range of areas. The Fifth Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting (TEMM) in
The joint research group on sand storms by the meteorological authorities of the three countries held the Third Aeolian Dust Experiment on Climate Impact (ADEC) Workshop in
Cooperation for sustainable development for seas of
In order to promote understanding of Asian monsoon and increase the accuracy of seasonal weather forecasting in the East Asian region, the "Joint Meeting for Seasonal Prediction of East Asian Monsoon" has been held since 1998, and three meetings were held between November 2003 and November 2004, with officials from the three countries' meteorological authorities, joined by researchers from research institutions and universities.
(Disaster Prevention and Management)
As for disaster prevention, a trilateral meeting has been inaugurated by top officials of the three countries' seismic authorities and cooperation started over the earthquake-related programs. A meeting of top officials from the three countries' seismic authorities was held in
(Energy)
The Three-Party Committee meeting held in June this year discussed the importance of energy cooperation among the three countries. Also in June this year, energy ministers of
(Financial Cooperation)
(Science and Technology)
The three countries held Directors-General meetings twice and exchanged information and views on science and technology cooperation. The second Directors-General meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation in March 2004 decided to hold a China-Japan-Korea ministerial meeting on science and technology cooperation in order to strengthen the research partnership among the three countries through frank exchange of views on science and technology cooperation. The Directors-General Meeting also identified possible joint research projects, and exchanged lists of large-scale research facilities of each country.
Cooperation among the three countries, together with other parties, in the field of fusion energy is being promoted mainly in the ITER project, which is a major international project aiming at an environmentally clean source of energy for humanity. Negotiations on site for ITER construction are still under way within the international framework including the three countries.
(Tourism)
With the aim of stimulating inbound tourism demand in
In addition to the opening of the JNTO Beijing office in 1999, the JNTO Shanghai office was opened this August. The new office is effectively utilized for stepping up efforts to promote tourism exchange between
The year 2005 is designated as the "Japan-Korea Friendship Year 2005" and following this move, the year 2005 is also designated as the Japan-Korea Visit Year 2005. The goodwill ambassadors of
(Fishery Resource Conservation)
The three countries held the China-Japan-Korea High-Level Meeting in
2. Cultural Exchanges and People-to-People Exchanges
(People-to-People Exchanges)
The three countries share the recognition that exchange of the youths will facilitate long-term friendship. In this context, the three countries valued the contribution by the "China-Japan-Korea Next Generation Leaders' Forum" held in July and August 2004, with the participation of young leaders of various fields, including politics, bureaucracy, business, academia, media and NGOs. As a similar program for the future generation, the "China-Japan-Korea Storybooks for Children Exchange Project" was held in August 2004, with the participation of children from the three countries.
In this context, the "Regional Project to Promote Foreign Language Education Diversification at Senior High Schools" at Japanese high schools is a unique project that deserves special attention. In this unique program, Japanese high school students who learn foreign languages such as Chinese and Korean participated in international youth exchange programs to promote friendship with the students of other countries including
(Education)
There has been progress in mutual recognition of academic credits and records through agreements between universities in the three countries. The students from
(Sports Exchanges)
The three countries have held "the China-Japan-Korea Junior Exchange Sports Meeting" covering 11 kinds of sports, including track and field, soccer and table tennis. The 2003 sports meeting was held in August in
(Exchanges between Local Governments)
The International Conference on Revitalizing Northeast China and Promoting Regional Cooperation in
3. Politics and Security
(The United Nations)
Expectations for the United Nations have been rising even further for the solution of a wide variety of global issues and problems facing the international community. The three countries discussed the issue of the UN reform through bilateral as well as multilateral channels such as the Japan-Korea Foreign Ministers' meeting in
(Asian Regional Cooperation)
The three countries share the views that an East Asian community is a future goal, that they should promote the formation of an East Asian community through ASEAN+3 as a core framework and respecting ASEAN as the driving force, and that the community building should be conducted in a transparent and open manner. Based on these understandings,
The three countries also positively implemented the EASG measures, which are the basis for functional cooperation in the ASEAN+3 framework. In addition, the three countries emphasized the need to strengthen the trilateral coordination in the context of ASEAN+3 cooperation, and confirmed such recognition at the Three-Party Committee meeting held in June 2004.
Also, in view of the strengthening of East Asian regional cooperation, the three countries further improved and developed their relations with ASEAN respectively.
The three countries have made important contributions to the progress of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
With regard to ASEM, three countries consulted each other and worked closely on various issues, including the ASEM enlargement and the preparation for the ASEM 5. The three countries also succeeded in identifying a host country of various meetings of ASEM that was to be held in
(Security)
As for security cooperation, security dialogues mainly on a bilateral basis have been promoted. In November last year, a Japan-Korea security dialogue was held in Seoul, while a China-Japan security dialogue was held in Tokyo in February this year. In these dialogues, the three countries exchanged views on regional as well as international situations, deepening mutual understanding about their security policies and discussing exchanges among defense personnel and policymakers.
(Disarmament and Nonproliferation)
Cooperation in disarmament and nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery has been promoted mainly in multilateral and bilateral frameworks. China, Japan and Korea as well as other Asian countries have participated annually in the Asian Export Control Seminar held in Tokyo, and also participated in the first Asian Export Control Policy Dialogue held in October 2003 and in the second dialogue held in October 2004 to discuss measures to prevent roundabout export of WMD and their means of delivery, the results of which were compiled in the chairman's summary/ statement.
(The Six-Party Talks)
Since the China-Japan-Korea Summit meeting in October 2003, two rounds of the Six-Party talks were held. In the second round of the talks in February 2004, the participants expressed their commitment to the denuclearization of the
(Social and Cross-Boarder Issues)
The concerned authorities have been cooperating in various bilateral and multilateral frameworks. Among the three countries' police authorities, cooperation has been mainly promoted in bilateral exchanges, with exchanges in practical matters in progress between China-Japan and Japan-Korea police authorities. They have confirmed prompt exchanges of information via the ICPO route and exchanged views concerning cracking down of cases involving intellectual property rights violations.
With regard to cooperation in counter-terrorism,
The coast guard authorities of the three countries, with other 14 countries and regions, have been building partnership in the area of countermeasures to sea piracy and terrorism.
Among the three countries' customs authorities, working level meetings have been held on a bilateral basis between China-Japan and Japan-Korea for the purpose of exchanging information on illicit drugs, firearms and products infringing on intellectual property rights.
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