The summit of the three sterilizers of South Korea, Japan, and China, which has been restarted in five years, will be held in Seoul at the end of May.Although the exact schedule has not yet been determined, the convention of the name of the meeting is determined in the order of the host country. The summit is called the South Korean, Japan -China summit meeting.The summit was proposed at the breakfast of the Asian Jiaga Third Summit in 1999. It was necessary to make the necessity of cooperation with the identity of the Three Kingdoms, including contributing to peace and stability of East Asia, improving economic cooperation and relationships, and strengthening disaster countermeasures.The annual summit between the heads of the Three Kingdoms countries was set up in Japan in 2008.
Although the focus is on the level of economic and cultural exchanges, from 2013 to 2014, due to the contradiction between the Korean and Japanese conflicts around the historical understanding and the outbreak of the TStar Islands (Diaoyu Islands) territorial disputes in China and Japan, it was not held.After the 2019 Chengdu Conference in China, it was also affected by the crown disease epidemic, South Korea -Japan relations, and the deterioration of Sino -US relations. It has not been held in the past five years.
Considering the economic scale and the situation in Northeast Asia, the importance of cooperation between the three countries does not need to be emphasized.The Three Kingdoms accounted for one -fifth in terms of global population, GDP (GDP) and trade volume, respectively, with strong international influence.However, there are many difficulties in the summit. For example, in historical issues, there are sharp cognitive oppositions, different systems, and different views on the nuclear issues, and it is not easy to overcome; in the Northeast Asian environment that lacks the atmosphere of cooperation, the summit is exchanged by exchange.The only and important platform for the three parties.Especially with the continuous provocation of North Korean leader Kim Jong -un, the cooperation of the three countries has become more difficult.However, the continuous dialogue and cooperation of the Three Kingdoms can contribute to the peace, stability, and prosperity of the Northeast Asia and the world, which is also a well -known fact.
Especially in the form of a summit, the Three Kingdoms has substantial expectations in a difficult environment.Generally speaking, the summit is the negotiation between the supreme leaders of various countries directly to the country, and it can exercise the highest decision right to reach an agreement through the negotiation from a macro perspective.However, many people pointed out that the presidential state South Korea was attended by the president, and the cabinet responsible system, Japan, was attended by the Prime Minister of the Cabinet.Although this is carried out in accordance with the convention of Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji in 1999, it is actually not in line with the specifications, so it really needs to be supplemented in the future.
Nevertheless, this is still the only multilateral meeting that the Three Kingdoms can formally exchange opinions at the highest level.In terms of system, in September 2011, the Three Kingdoms Cooperation Affairs Bureau was established in Seoul, laying a regular basis.In addition, in addition to the summit meeting, the three countries arranged for regular operations of 21 conference projects such as diplomatic, transportation, transportation, logistics, culture, health care, environment, and sports.In addition, the three parties have carried out a variety of cooperation projects in the fields of economic development or sustainable development and investment, trade, science, culture, and personnel exchanges, and indeed give the Three Kingdoms a clear motivation to sustainable cooperation.
Nevertheless, people's evaluation of the summit in results and effectiveness is not high. This is because the Three Kingdoms as the core economic group of East Asia. Although the necessity of creating synergy through cooperation is expressed, it has been identified, but it is on political and security issues.It is always difficult to reach consensus.Coupled with the historical issues, territorial issues, national emotional problems, deepening of contradictions between the United States and China, and strengthening political security issues such as the United States and China, the three countries have easily losing the cohesion of cooperation. This is a natural weakness.This not only hinders the opportunity to reach a high -level protocol, but also hinders the leap development from quantitative change to qualitative change.
Obviously a multilateral summit, but it is difficult to have self -discipline because countries have a priority order of the Three Kingdoms cooperation projects, and there is a fundamental gap.South Korea hopes to establish a benign relationship with neighboring countries with the stability of the Korean Peninsula, and seek cooperation in Northeast Asian region centered on the Nuclear issue of North Korea.As a global power, China focuses on cooperation on regional cooperation with the United States with strategic competition.In particular, in order to strengthen the United States' marine forces, they are unwilling to withdraw from the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.Japan puts its goal in restraining China, establishes regional dominance, and then cooperates in the Pacific region of India. It exceeds Northeast Asia and also attaches more importance to East Asian cooperation, including Southeast Asia.
The regional strategy of regional understanding and the regional strategy brought by it is the biggest challenge factor facing the cooperation between the Three Kingdoms.The Three Kingdoms should get rid of this kind of understanding and strategic differences, and start studying the substantial solution that can play a cooperative effect.The key is how to find a plan to manage the core contradictions of the three countries, because contradictions are not resolved but management.Of course, this requires a maximum reduction of the negative impact of bilateral relations, and at the same time taps as much as possible in the three countries that are interested in cooperation areas.From this point of view, the three parties should regard strengthening economic cooperation and exchanges as the minimum foundation, and expand the scope of cooperation to cross -border issues, such as large -scale disasters and humanitarian assistance, climate change or atmospheric pollution, prevent infectious diseases, mutual assistance to combat internationalTerrorism activities, energy security, etc.In these soft security fields, the cooperation of the Three Kingdoms is entirely possible.
For this reason, the imperative is how to adjust the differences between the three countries in historical issues. At this point, it is necessary to change the historical understanding of Japan.In addition, the Three Kingdoms must also abandon the contradictions such as territorial issues and geopolitical competition.These contradictions can be resolved by a temporary conversion situation in a country.The contradictions of the three countries are not variables, but constant.In this case, if countries only emphasize the achievement of the goal and cannot formulate a common vision of cooperation, the continuity of the three parties will be difficult to guarantee.The "management competition" model that upgrades the contradictions between the two countries into conflict has been set up between China and the United States.If you only emphasize the competition without management, it is difficult to make progress.
In any case, the Three Kingdoms clearly recognize the necessity of the same cooperation, but the sense of urgency decreases than before.Although, the strengthening of China's strong country, the strengthening of the Korean -American alliance, and the United States and Japan alliances, and the strengthening trend of the three parties in South Korea, the United States and Japan, will have a negative impact on the implementation of the cooperation between the Three Kingdoms.2. Personnel exchanges will continue to increase, and more cross points will inevitably occur in the future.The summit hosted by South Korea, hopes to break the blank period of the past five years, can form a consensus to meet the new order, formulate the substantive cooperation framework of the three parties, and become a historical turning point for open -minded exchanges.
The author is a professor of the University of Foreign Language and Foreign Language, the president of the Northeast Asia Future Cooperation Company