The United States welcomes a series of meeting that leaders of South Korea, China and Japan held this week and supports efforts to move relations between the three countries forward, a senior American administration official said Monday.
President Park Geun-hye, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held a trilateral summit in Seoul on Sunday, resuming three-way cooperation talks that have been suspended since 2012 due to history and territorial tensions.
The three leaders also held a series of one-on-one talks among themselves. In particular, Park and Abe held bilateral talks that marked the first meeting between the two leaders since they took office and the first summit of the two countries in more than three years.
“We welcome the meetings of the leaders of Japan, the Republic of Korea and China on November 1 and 2 in Seoul, and support their efforts to improve relations among the three countries,” a senior U.S. administration official told Yonhap News Agency on background.
“We believe strong and constructive relations between South Korea, Japan, and China support regional peace and prosperity. This serves our interests and the interests of the region,” the official said.
The three countries agreed to increase cooperation, especially on efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. The Park-Abe meeting produced an agreement to accelerate negotiations to resolve the issue of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery. (Yonhap)
