The China–Japan–South Korea trilateral summit is an annual summit meeting attended by China, Japan and South Korea, three major countries in East Asia and the world's second, fourth and 12th largest economies. The first summit was held during December 2008 in Fukuoka, Japan. The talks are focused on maintaining strong trilateral relations, the regional economyChina expects positive result at upcoming meeting with ROK, Japan and disaster relief.China, Japan, S Korea to promote co-op on disaster management
The summits were first proposed by South Korea in 2004, as a meeting outside the framework of the ASEAN Plus Three, with the three major economies of East Asia having a separate community forum. In November 2007 during the ASEAN Plus Three meeting, the leaders of China, Japan, and South Korea held their eighth meeting, and decided to strengthen political dialogue and consultations between the three countries, eventually deciding on an ad hoc meeting to be held in 2008.
In September 2011, the three countries launched the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat in Seoul. The secretary-general is appointed on a two-year rotational basis in the order of Korea, Japan, and China. Each country other than that of the secretary-general nominates a deputy secretary-general respectively.
Summits
Leader summits Summit Host Country Participants Host City Date Premier Prime Minister President 1st Wen Jiabao Tarō Asō Lee Myung-bak Dazaifu 13 December 2008 2nd Wen Jiabao Yukio Hatoyama Lee Myung-bak Beijing 10 October 2009 3rd Wen Jiabao Yukio Hatoyama Lee Myung-bak Jeju 29 May 2010 4th Wen Jiabao Naoto Kan Lee Myung-bak 21–22 May 2011 5th Wen Jiabao Yoshihiko Noda Lee Myung-bak Beijing 13–14 May 2012 6th Li Keqiang Shinzō Abe Park Geun-hye Seoul 1 November 2015 7th Li Keqiang Shinzō Abe Moon Jae-in Tokyo 9 May 2018 8th Li Keqiang Shinzō Abe Moon Jae-in Chengdu 23–25 December 2019 9th Li Qiang Fumio Kishida Yoon Suk-yeol Seoul 26–27 May 2024
Foreign Ministers' Meetings Summit Host Country Participants Host City Date 1st Yang Jiechi Tarō Asō Song Min-soon Jeju 3 June 2007 2nd Yang Jiechi Masahiko Kōmura Yu Myung-hwan Tokyo 14 June 2008 3rd Yang Jiechi Katsuya Okada Yu Myung-hwan Shanghai 28 September 2009 4th Yang Jiechi Katsuya Okada Yu Myung-hwan Gyeongju 15 May 2010 5th Yang Jiechi Takeaki Matsumoto Kim Sung-hwan Kyoto 19 March 2011 6th Yang Jiechi Kōichirō Genba Kim Sung-hwan Ningbo 8 April 2012 7th Wang Yi Fumio Kishida Yun Byung-se Seoul 21 March 2015 8th Wang Yi Fumio Kishida Yun Byung-se Kurashiki 24 August 2016 9th Wang Yi Tarō Kōno Kang Kyung-wha Beijing 21 August 2019Special Wang Yi Toshimitsu Motegi Kang Kyung-wha (virtual) 20 March 202010thWang YiYōko KamikawaPark JinBusan26 November 202311thWang YiTakeshi IwayaCho Tae-YulTokyo22 March 2025
Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' Meetings Summit Host country Host city Date 1st Brunei 9 September 2000 2nd Shanghai 11 May 2002 3rd Bali 5 July 2003 4th Jeju 16 May 2004 5th Istanbul 4 May 2005 6th Hyderabad 4 May 2006 7th Tokyo 4 May 2007 8th Madrid 4 May 2008 9th Bali 3 May 2009 10th Tashkent 2 May 2010 11th Hanoi 4 May 2011 12th Manila 3 May 2012 13th Cairns 19 September 2014 14th Baku 3 May 2015 15th Lima 8 October 2015 16th Frankfurt 3 May 2016 17th Yokohama 5 May 2017 18th Manila 4 May 2018 19th Nadi 2 May 2019 20th (virtual) 18 September 2020 21st 3 May 2021 22nd 12 May 2022 23rd Incheon 2 May 2023 24th Tbilisi 3 May 2024
Economic and Trade Ministers' Meetings Summit Host country Host city Date 1st Brunei 13 September 2002 2nd Phnom Penh 3 September 2003 3rd Jakarta 4 September 2004 4th Manila 9 December 2006 5th Singapore 19 November 2007 6th Hua Hin 25 October 2009 7th Seoul 23 May 2010 8th Tokyo 24 April 2011 9th Beijing 12 May 2012 10th Seoul 30 October 2015 11th Tokyo 26 October 2016 12th Beijing 22 December 2019 13th Seoul 30 March 2025
Health Ministers' Meetings Summit Host country Host city Date 1st Seoul 8 April 2007 2nd Beijing 2 November 2008 3rd Tokyo 23 November 2009 4th Jeju 21 November 2010 5th Qingdao 13 November 2011 6th Seoul 24 November 2013 7th Beijing 23 November 2014 8th Kyoto 29 November 2015 9th Busan 4 December 2016 10th Jinan 12 November 2017 11th Kumamoto 25 November 2018 12th Seoul 15 December 2019 Special (virtual) 15 May 2020 13th (virtual) 11 December 2020 14th (virtual) 21 December 2021 15th (virtual) 16 December 2022 16th Beijing 3 December 2023 17th Tokyo 15 December 2024 18th Seoul 14 December 2025
Environment Ministers' Meetings Summit Host country Host city Date 1st Seoul 12 January 1999 2nd Beijing 26 February 2000 3rd Tokyo 7 April 2001 4th Seoul 20 April 2002 5th Beijing 13 December 2003 6th Tokyo 4 December 2004 7th Seoul 22 October 2005 8th Beijing 2 December 2006 9th Toyama 4 December 2007 10th Jeju 1 December 2008 11th Beijing 13 June 2009 12th Hokkaido 22 May 2010 13th Busan 28 April 2011 14th Beijing 3 May 2012 15th Kitakyushu 5 May 2013 16th Daegu 28 April 2014 17th Shanghai 29 April 2015 18th Shizuoka 27 April 2016 19th Suwon 25 August 2017 20th Suzhou 24 June 2018 21st Kitakyushu 23–24 November 2019 22nd (virtual) 7 December 2021 23rd (virtual) 1 December 2022 24th Nagoya 4 November 2023 25th Jeju 28-29 September 2024
Culture Ministers' Meetings Summit Host country Host city Date 1st Nantong 19–21 September 2007 2nd Jeju 24–26 December 2008 3rd Nara 18–20 January 2011 4th Shanghai 5–6 May 2012 5th Gwangju 27–28 September 2013 6th Yokohama 29–30 November 2014 7th Qingdao 19–20 December 2015 8th Jeju 27–28 August 2016 9th Kyoto 25–26 August 2017 10th Harbin 29–31 August 2018 11th Incheon 29–31 August 2019 12th (virtual) 30 August 2021 13th (virtual) 26 August 2022 14th Jeonju 7–8 September 2023 15th Kyoto 12 September 2024
Meetings
Such a meeting was first proposed by the Republic of Korea in 2004 (another viewpoint that it should have begun in November 1999, when Zhu Rongji, the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Keizo Obuchi, the Prime Minister of Japan, and Kim Dae-jung, the President of the Republic of Korea, held their first trilateral Leaders' Breakfast in the Philippines on the margins of the ASEAN-China Association meeting, thus setting the precedent for the trilateral Leaders to meet within the ASEAN (10+3) framework).
In November 2007, when the leaders of China, Japan and South Korea held their eighth meeting within the framework of ASEAN and China, Japan and South Korea (10+3), they decided to strengthen political dialog and consultation among the three countries and to hold occasional meetings among the leaders of the three countries, and at the meeting of the foreign ministers of the three countries held in June 2008 in Tokyo, but due to the sudden resignation of Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, the meeting was postponed to 13 December 2008.
1st trilateral summit (2008)
The first separate meeting of the leaders of the three countries was held in Fukuoka, Japan. During the meeting, the "Joint Statement between the three partners" was signed and issued, which identified the direction and principles behind cooperation between China, Japan and South Korea. The conference adopted the "International Financial and Economic Issues Joint Statement", "Disaster Management of the Three Countries Joint Statement" and "Action plan to promote cooperation between China, Japan and South Korea".
One of the topics discussed focused on the improvement of future relations between the three countries, from strategic and long-term perspectives. Prior talks between the three countries have been hindered specifically by various territorial and historical disputes.Japan, South Korea, China: trilateral ties, tensions - Yahoo! Malaysia Chinese premier Wen Jiabao stated that "China is willing to make joint efforts with Japan to continue to develop the strategic and mutually beneficial ties in a healthy and stable manner, to benefit the peoples of the two countries and other nations in the region as well." Japanese prime minister Tarō Asō also expressed that he believed the best manner in dealing with the economic crisis of 2008 was economic partnership.China, Japan, S Korea agree to enhance systematic co-op There is also speculation of a future regional Free trade area. Such co-operation would greatly benefit the three nations, which account for two thirds of total trade, 40% of total population and three quarters of the GDP of Asia (20% of global GDPASEAN-China Relations ), during the ongoing economic crisis.SBS World News Australia, 14 December 2008
2nd trilateral summit (2009)
The second summit was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Despite the worries of limitations that the summit has faced in 2008, this all changed in 2009, when Japan, China and Korea were forced to coordinate and cooperate more closely to manage the regional effects of the 2008 financial crisis.
In their joint statement on the crisis, the trio identified the need to cooperate on global issues (such as financial risk) and in global institutions, including at the G20. While a reaction to global events, this cooperation began to significantly affect the management of East Asia. Over the course of 2009, the three nations resolved their long running dispute over contributions (and thus voting weight) in the Chiang Mai Initiatives, the first major 'success' of the ASEAN Plus Three process. The three nations also worked together to push through a general capital increase at the Asian Development Bank to help it fight the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, a decision mandated by the G20 but about which the US appeared ambivalent.
3rd trilateral summit (2010)
The third summit among these three countries was held in Jeju, Korea. The President of Korea, Lee Myung bak hosted the meeting and China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, Japan's prime minister Yukio Hatoyama attended the meeting. One document called the 2020 Cooperation Prospect was released, which firstly emphasized that the three countries will face up to history and cooperate for the future development. Also, looking forward to the specific goals that should be achieved in the next ten years, this document stressed the importance to concentrate on the cooperation in different fields.
In the progress of institutionalizations and improvements of the partnership, the leaders decided to enhance the communication and strategic mutual trust. The leaders agreed to establish a secretariat in Korea in 2011 to confront the natural disaster, discuss the possibility to build up the 'defense dialogue mechanism', improve the policing cooperation and boost the communication among the government. In terms of sustainable development and common prosperity, the leaders said they would try to complete the survey of the Trilateral Free Trade Area before 2012; improve the trade volume; enhance trade facilitation and they restated that they would attach great importance to the customs cooperation; make efforts to the negotiation about investment agreement and offer necessary infrastructure for the improvement of the free flow of investment capital; enhance the coordination of the financial departments; improve the effectiveness of the multilateral Chiang mai initiate; reject all forms of trade protectionism; improve the cooperation in science and innovation; and strengthen the cooperation and consultation policies in the fields of industry, energy, the energy efficiency and resource.
4th trilateral summit (2011)