Premier Li Keqiang, President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Moon Jae-in, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met the press together on Dec 24 in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan province, after attending the 8th China-Japan-ROK leaders' meeting.

Premier Li praised the meeting as pragmatic, honest, efficient and fruitful. He said that China, Japan and ROK have witnessed together a 20-year history of remarkable cooperation. “We open up to each other and stick to multilateralism and free trade, making the cooperation among us an important engine for the development of East Asia,” he said.

The Premier told the press that China, Japan and ROK look at the future cooperation decade as a new historical starting point and have made a forward-looking strategic plan. “We have reached a consensus to enhance the political mutual trust and uphold the correct cooperation direction. From a strategic and long-term perspective, we will face up to history, open up the future, regard each other’s development as our opportunity, and keep expanding our mutual interests. Based on East Asia, we focus on the Asia-Pacific to play a more important role of coordination and exchanges to forge an East Asia cooperation architecture which meets the regional and national requirements,” the Premier said.

China, Japan and ROK agreed to accelerate the regional economic integration, promote the early signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and make substantial progress in negotiations for the China-Japan-ROK free trade agreement.

Premier Li said that China is expanding the scope of opening-up with huge market potential in many fields, including service industry and financial industry. Enterprises from ROK and Japan are welcomed to be the first batch to cooperate with their Chinese partners in fields like health, elderly care, child care, securities and life insurance.

China proposed to make the year of 2020 “the year of scientific and technological innovation cooperation for China, Japan and the ROK”, Premier Li said. He called for the three countries to strengthen "China-Japan-ROK+X" cooperation for common development with more countries, and deepen cooperation in finance and technology to improve mobile payment facilitation and provide greater convenience for tourists from the three nations.

He said the three countries should enhance cultural exchanges, cooperation in Olympic Games, as well as in dealing with climate change, environment protection and marine plastic trash.

Premier Li said they exchanged views on the situation of the Korean Peninsula and reiterated that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and perpetual peace of the Northeast Asia is their common objective. Talks and negotiations are the only effective way to solving the Korean Peninsula issue.

The three nations are devoted to solving the Korean Peninsula issue through political and diplomatic approaches to reach long-term peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and the region, the Premier added.

The leaders from ROK and Japan highly praised the fruitful cooperative results reached by the three nations over the past 20 years, and fully recognized the role of the Trilateral Cooperation Vision for the Next Decade in guiding the next-step cooperation.

They agreed on more cooperation in areas such as environment protection, climate change, hygiene and health, aging population, technological innovation, sports and youth, to lift the three-party cooperation to a higher level.

They appreciated the progress made in negotiations of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and called for on-time and high-quality signing of the RCEP next year to maintain free trade and multilateralism.

The two leaders also said they will enhance communication and coordination on Korean Peninsula affairs, and play a constructive role in realizing the denuclearization and lasting peace of the Korean Peninsula.