Japan, China, S. Korea to Seek Trilateral Summit by Year-End

Tokyo, March 21 (Jiji Press)--The foreign ministers of Japan, China and South Korea are expected to agree at a meeting in Tokyo on Saturday to speed up coordination to hold a trilateral summit by the end of this year at the earliest, informed sources said Friday.

In principle, the three Asian countries hold a trilateral summit once a year, but it has often been postponed due to deteriorating relations. The last three-way summit, held in Seoul last May, was the first in about four and a half years.

Ahead of Saturday's meeting, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul at the prime minister's office on Friday evening.

"Both countries are extremely important neighbors," Ishiba said. "We hope to build future-oriented cooperative relations through dialogue, including on pending issues."

Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya hosted a dinner for his Chinese and South Korean counterparts on Friday.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]