Premier Li Keqiang met with ROK Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, who just attended the ninth meeting of foreign ministers of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK), in Beijing on Aug 22.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the cooperation between China, Japan and the ROK.

As neighbors with connected cultures, the three nations are highly complementary in terms of economy, and have huge potential for cooperation, the Premier said.

Facing growing instability and uncertainty in the world economy and downward pressure on global trade, strengthened cooperation among China, Japan and the ROK will not only benefit their own development, but also stabilize and boost the regional and world economy, the Premier added.

“China attaches great importance to the cooperation among China, Japan and the ROK, and is willing to work with the ROK and Japan to push the cooperation to a higher level,” he promised.

With more progress made, Premier Li said, the cooperation among the three nations will become more important and necessary.

The three countries should uphold a rules-based multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core, and strive to reach a comprehensive and high-level China-Japan-Korea free trade agreement as soon as possible to promote the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment, Premier Li emphasized.

“We should join hands to promote technological innovation and share development opportunities and innovation achievements, to promote development and prosperity and boost East Asian cooperation,” the Premier said.

He added that the three nations should safeguard regional peace and stability and make positive contributions to the political settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue, advancing its denuclearization, and achieving lasting peace in the region.

Meanwhile, close people-to-people exchanges should be strengthened to enhance mutual understanding among the people, and reinforce the public foundation for cooperation among the three countries, the Premier said.

The foreign ministers meeting has achieved positive results and plans were made for further cooperation among the three parties, Kang Kyung-wha said.

The ROK expects a successful China-Japan-ROK leaders' meeting in China this year and will contribute to the peaceful and stable development of the region, she added.

Hailing how ROK-China relations have witnessed sound development, Kang Kyung-wha also said the ROK is confident about future cooperation between two sides.

For his part, Taro Kono said the three foreign ministers have reached a broad consensus on pragmatic cooperation in the future, and Japan is willing to work with China and the ROK to ensure the success of the coming leaders' meeting.

“The high-level exchanges between Japan and China are close and our cooperation in various fields is getting deeper, and Japan is willing to work with China to promote long-term, healthy and stable development of the relations between the two sides,” Taro Kono said.