The Chinese premier met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Seoul with efforts to revitalize three-party free trade agreement negotiations, stalled since 2019, high on the agenda, Reuters reported.
As the summit opened, Li said the meeting was "both a restart and a new beginning" and called for the comprehensive resumption of cooperation between East Asia's economic powerhouses.
But for this to happen politics should be separated from economic and trade issues, he added, calling for an end to protectionism and the decoupling of supply chains.
"For China, South Korea, and Japan, our close ties will not change, the spirit of cooperation achieved through crisis response will not change and our mission to safeguard regional peace and stability will not change," Li said.
A joint declaration released after the meeting called for China, Japan, and South Korea to formalize more regular communication at the highest levels, and collaborate on climate change, conservation, health, trade and international peace, among other areas.
The declaration also set a goal of boosting the number of people-to-people exchanges to 40 million by 2030 through exchanges in culture, tourism and education.
The leaders also issued separate joint statements on pandemic preparation and intellectual property protection.
Regardless of the agreements signed during the talks, the meeting itself is being seen as a mark of progress in relations between three countries whose relations are marked as much by suspicion and rancour as constructive engagement.
According to the Reuters report, China and US-allied South Korea and Japan are trying to manage mutual distrust amid the rivalry between Beijing and Washington, tensions over Taiwan and North Korea's nuclear program.
SD/PR
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