Korea, Japan, China adopt ‘trilateral vision’ for next decade, including FTA

BEIJING - Speaking at a joint media conference after a trilateral summit in Chengdu, China, with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, South Korea's President,  Moon Jae-in, has said the three countries have adopted "a trilateral co-peration vision for the next decade".

"The newly adopted vision will serve as a milestone for the path of peace and prosperity in East Asia and a sustainable world," he said.
"We reconfirmed the importance of the trilateral co-operation we have developed over the past two decades and decided to raise the level of tangible co-operation so that the people of our countries can feel the results."
Moon also said this year's summit had offered an important opportunity to help make the trilateral co-peration meeting a regular event. The three sides had also agreed to continue close communication and co-operation for the denuclearis-zation of and a permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Premier Li said: "Not only through co-operation among China, Korea and Japan but also that in East Asia, we will strengthen communication and co-ordination in responding to regional and global issues erupting in the Asia-Pacific region.

"We will play a greater role in forming a co-perative structure in East Asia that meet the demands of countries in the region. "We all support free trade, economic cooperation and investment."

Li said the three countries would accelerate negotiations on a trilateral free trade agreement (FTA).

Prime Minister Abe said the three leaders had confirmed their commitment to pursue a trilateral FTA, saying it had vast added value and could even become the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

"For us to meet the global expectations of our three countries and assume greater responsibility, duties and obligations, we three leaders renewed our commitment to work harder toward trilateral co-operation, which marks its 20th anniversary this year, for the next 10 years."  www.korea.kr (ATI).