Trilateral cooperation in East Asia essential

Source:Global Times Published: 2015-9-29 0:38:01

Editor's Note:

In recent years, bilateral relations among China, Japan and South Korea have seen frequent tensions due to political and historical issues. What impact does it bring to cooperation among the three countries? How can they move beyond the past? On the sidelines of the 2nd Trilateral People-to-People Exchange Forum in late August in Changchun, Northeast China's Jilin Province, Global Times (GT) reporter Sun Xiaobo talked to Shigeo Iwatani (Iwatani), secretary-general of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS) from September 2013 till this August 31, over these issues.

GT: How do you view the progress of the China-Japan-South Korea cooperation over the past two years when you were secretary-general of the TCS?

Iwatani:
During my term of office, unfortunately trilateral cooperation even somewhat stagnated because of bilateral problems. The last trilateral summit took place in May 2012 and during the two-year period, there was no trilateral summit meeting. The foreign ministers' meeting took place in March, which is a good sign that trilateral cooperation at the top level is heading forward. Hopefully, a summit of the three countries can take place in the near future.

Because of this rather negative political situation, my main task was to sustain trilateral cooperation so that it would not go downturn. In that respect, the TCS has made good efforts. Although several ministerial meetings were suspended, many other such meetings were held. They agreed on some issues and released joint statements. At the official level, there was constant dialogue and some progress was made.

I believe trilateral cooperation can be an opportunity for top leaders of the three countries to get together and talk about their common concerns. On the sidelines of trilateral meetings, bilateral contacts can also take place.

I hope the three countries can utilize the framework of the trilateral format to promote bilateral ties and that the TCS can play a role to mitigate the sharp bilateral conflicts since the atmosphere can be milder in a trilateral setting.

GT: How can efforts be made in the future to promote trilateral cooperation?

Iwatani:
There is a lot of potential that is not yet sufficiently tapped. At the 2nd Trilateral People-to-People Exchange Forum, we discussed how to promote trilateral cooperation and there were many constructive proposals. The only difficulty we face is how to prioritize these good ideas given the limited capacity to implement them.

In particular, political and security cooperation is not well developed. I think we should try to cultivate opportunities for political cooperation that can be implemented in a realistic sense. For example, maritime cooperation can be a good area for the three countries to work together.

Of course it has some sensitive aspects if we talk about things like navy-to-navy cooperation, but there are many other areas where they can cooperate because the oceanic boundaries are not very clear. It's important for them to meet and talk about issues related to maritime resources, energy and so on, and try to reach some good formula to cultivate economic benefits at sea for everyone.

GT: The TCS has been in place for four years. How has it done?

Iwatani:
For the past two years, the TCS was a good stabilizer for trilateral cooperation by implementing various projects and organizing conferences to have people of the three countries meet.

Given the difficult environment, it is not possible to make really remarkable progress in trilateral cooperation. But we made several proposals which can be considered in the trilateral summit. If they can be agreed upon, that would be a great leap forward in promoting trilateral cooperation.

GT: What do you think are the prospects of trilateral cooperation and its significance in the geopolitical context of Asia?

Iwatani:
Geopolitically speaking, the area is rather volatile. We have the North Korean issue, China getting more powerful and hence a shift of balance of power. There is lots of competition in East Asia in various respects. But in order to maintain stability, it is important for countries to cooperate rather than simply competing and to keep a good balance of the two. Competing with each other is important to make progress as otherwise people become lazy, but competition is not enough by itself. With cooperation, the three countries can be stronger than behaving individually, and in the entire community we will have a bigger presence. The example of the EU can also apply to East Asia as a whole.  

GT: What influence do external factors, such as the US, exert on trilateral cooperation?

Iwatani:
Trilateral cooperation gives people an impression that only the three countries cooperate exclusively without others, but actually it should be inclusive because many issues should be discussed with other countries like Russia, Mongolia and the US. They all have some stakes in particular issues and we need to be flexible.

Trilateral cooperation simply means the three countries should be the core of the cooperation. The Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative proposed by South Korean President Park Geun-hye, which we are cooperating with, has very similar goals and holds that other countries should be invited to talk about various non-traditional security issues such as nuclear power plants safety and environmental issues.

East Asia can expand widely to include many countries and we should invite all the stakeholders over various concrete issues.



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