President Park Geun-hye voiced optimism Thursday about the possibility of meeting with her Chinese and Japanese counterparts, a move that could signal a thaw in Seoul and Beijing’s strained ties with Tokyo.
Park said she wants to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe following a meeting of their foreign ministers in the near future.
Still, she did not give any specific time frame for the proposed summit.
South Korea, China and Japan have held an annual trilateral summit since 1999 on the sidelines of regional summits organized by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.
Since 2008, the Northeast Asian countries have also held a regular summit on a rotating basis, with their last meeting held in Beijing in May 2012.
In Seoul, Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kwang-il said South Korea will closely collaborate with Japan and China to hold the foreign ministers’ meeting by the end of this year.
Park made the comments in a summit between ASEAN and its three Northeast Asian dialogue partners — South Korea, China and Japan — in Myanmar.
The Korean leader was in Naypyidaw, the remote capital of the country, to attend two regional conferences — the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN 3 meeting.
In the East Asia Summit, held earlier in the day, the Korean leader sought to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties with Southeast Asia, one of the fastest-growing economic blocs in the world.
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| South Korean President Park Geun-hye (sixth from left) joins hands with other participants of the ASEAN 3 Summit meeting at a group photo session in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital, Thursday. (Yonhap) |
The government aims to increase the level of its free trade pact with the ASEAN countries in the future. The ASEAN region is expected to become an integrated market with a population of 600 million and annual gross domestic product reaching $3 trillion.
As part of the efforts to bolster ties, Park plans to host a global meeting in the port city of Busan in December to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the historic South Korea-ASEAN summit.
Park suggested that the leaders develop the East Asia Summit as “an evolving consultative body” and to intensify regional cooperation in the fields of environment, energy, finance, health, education and management of natural disasters.
While supporting a declaration made at the summit to tackle illegal trade of wildlife, Park introduced the South Korean government’s effort to build a peace park in the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas.
The East Asia Summit is an 18-nation forum at which leaders can discuss strategic and political issues in the region. It is composed of ASEAN plus its eight dialogue partners — South Korea, China, Japan, the United States, Russia, Australia, India and New Zealand. ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam.
On the sidelines of the EAS meeting, Park had a pull-aside meeting with her Thai counterpart, Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha, her office said. The two leaders agreed to build strategic partnerships in the fields of politics, business and culture. It was their first meeting after the Thai leader took power in May.
The president was also set to meet New Zealand Prime Minister John Key on the sidelines of the meetings in Myanmar. But they rescheduled their meeting on New Zealand’s request. The two will meet during the G20 summit to be held in Brisbane, Australia, on the weekend.
On Thursday evening, Park left for Brisbane, for a summit of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies. The summit’s wide-ranging agenda includes anticorruption issues, development and trade. She returns to Seoul on Monday.
By Cho Chung-un and news reports
(christory@heraldcorp.com)
