ASSESSMENTS

China, Japan and South Korea Agree to Talk Things Through

May 15, 2018 | 09:00 GMT

After three years of bumpy relations, China, Japan and South Korea have once again gathered for a trilateral summit as they look for a way to harness their economic heft.

China, Japan and South Korea have explored combining their economic might with a trade alliance. But territorial squabbles and other roadblocks have stood in the way of that goal.

(EUGENE HOSHIKO/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

Japan, China and South Korea have been striving, on and off, to establish a trilateral mechanism for cooperation.
They have had only intermittent success, however, largely because of conflicting agendas and strategic competition in the Asia-Pacific region.
Right now, U.S. trade strategy and the ongoing North Korean nuclear crisis give Asia-Pacific's three biggest powers powerful incentives to work together, but their conflicting geopolitical imperatives will continue to limit cooperation.

Japan, China and South Korea recently came together for a trilateral summit for the first time in three years. The summit, which was established a decade ago, has the potential to forge an economic bloc among the three countries that would have a major economic impact on global trade. But that can only happen if the regional powers can resolve territorial disputes, leadership squabbles and debates over the contentious future of the two Koreas....

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