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Meeting of Leaders of China, Japan and South Korea Issues an Action Plan on Cooperation

2008-12-15 21:53

On December 13, 2008, the meeting of leaders of China, Japan and South Korea issued an action plan on trilateral cooperation in Fukuoka, Japan. The document worked out specific plans of trilateral cooperation in various fields. The abstract of the plan is as follows:

I. Political affairs

The trilateral dialogue mechanism will be consolidated. The second and third meetings of leaders will be held in China and South Korea in 2009 and 2010 respectively. The three countries will continue to make consultations on holding the meeting of leaders during the ASEAN series of meetings. The third meeting of foreign ministers will be held in China next year and the trilateral meeting of senior diplomats will be held annually.

The trilateral cooperation network secretariat will be set up in 2009 in order to make the tripartite cooperation more effective.

II. Economic affairs

The joint researches on the trilateral free trade zone will be completed by the end of 2008 and further in-depth studies will kick off in 2009. The three countries will push for the early conclusion of negotiations on promoting trade facilitation and investment protection. The governments of the three countries will continue with their mutually beneficial cooperation in the energy sector and make joint efforts to strengthen regional and global energy security. They will try to enhance trade facilitation and economic growth by building an efficient and seamless international logistics system in East Asia. The third meeting of transportation and logistics ministers will be held in China in 2009. Customs cooperation will be reinforced to create an enabling environment for investment and facilitate trade. China will host the third meeting of customs ministers of the three countries in 2009. China, Japan and South Korea will discuss the possibility of establishing the liaison system in 2009 in order to push forward their cooperation in the industrial sector. They will continue to strengthen the financial dialogue and cooperation among such agencies as financial ministries, central banks and financial regulatory authorities.

III. Environmental protection, science and technology

They will launch the East Asia climate partnership plan, jointly study the surveillance, early warning, prevention and control of sand storms and try to solve air pollution in the region. The trilateral cooperation on managing marine waste will be strengthened and joint efforts of protecting and monitoring migrants be made. Scientific and technological cooperation should be improved. The second ministerial-level meeting of China, Japan and South Korea on scientific and technological cooperation will be held in Tokyo in 2009 and the existing projects will be pushed forward on strengthening information and communication technology cooperation.

IV. Social and cultural affairs

The three nations will discuss the possibility of enhancing the trilateral marine rescue cooperation on the basis of building bilateral rescue cooperation mechanisms. The second meeting of health ministers of the three countries was held in Beijing in November 2008. The three nations are committed to preventing and controlling flu epidemic by close cooperation. They will continue to expand health cooperation to other issues related with health. As the consulting mechanism of diplomatic and security academic institutions among the three countries, the annual tripartite cooperation forum will be re-launched. The friendly meetings of youth of South Korea, China and Japan will be held in South Korea and China in 2009 and 2010 respectively. The forum of youth leaders of South Korea, China and Japan will be held in Beijing in 2009. The three countries will discuss the feasibility of launching the trilateral youth ministers' meeting. They will continue to host cultural activities such as exhibitions, art performances and movies and expand cooperation in such fields as competitive sports, mass sports, sport science, medicine and anti-doping. Their cooperation in tourism will be increased and operation of joint cruise routes linking their major tourist destinations be broadened.

V. International cooperation

The three countries will exchange opinions on how to reach a fair and effective international climate change arrangement oriented the year after 2012 at the UN climate change conference to be held in Copenhagen, 2009. They will reinforce dialogue and consultations on the African affairs. They are committed to pushing forward cooperation with ASEAN, speeding up East Asia cooperation and supporting the leading role of ASEAN in East Asia cooperation. They will make joint efforts with all parties concerned to move forward the six-party talks. The trilateral talks will be strengthened and cooperation sought to reform the UN as soon as possible covered in the outcome of the 2005 UN Summit. Joint efforts will be made to push forward the multilateral disarmament process, reinforce the international non-proliferation system and maintain peace and stability in the region and the entire world at large.

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