[Title] Joint Declaration of the Seventh Japan-China-ROK Trilateral Summit

We, the leaders of Japan, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Korea met in Tokyo, Japan on May 9, 2018, on the occasion of the Seventh Trilateral Summit.

We appreciate the positive developments in various areas of trilateral cooperation as envisioned in the Joint Declaration adopted at the last Summit in November 2015 in Seoul. We also note that trilateral cooperation has contributed to building a regional platform for peace and cooperation in this region. In this regard, we renew our commitment to making further efforts towards deepening and broadening such cooperation. We acknowledge the responsibility we share in ensuring peace and stability in the region and the world, and as the three major economies with the total Gross Domestic Product amounting to more than 20% of that of the world, we recognize the important role we play in demonstrating a path for world prosperity. We therefore reiterate our commitment to working together to address both regional and global challenges.

Appreciating and reaffirming the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS)’s role in advancing trilateral cooperation, we express support for the capacity-building of the TCS and its broader participation in the trilateral cooperation mechanisms. In addition, we reaffirm that the launching of the Trilateral Cooperation Fund will be instrumental for the development of trilateral cooperation projects.

Trilateral Cooperation

We concur on the significance of holding the Trilateral Summit on a regular basis to lend political impetus to trilateral cooperation and dialogue in a wide variety of areas, including political, economic, social, and sustainable development fields. Reaffirming that the three countries share everlasting history and infinite future, we will continue to cooperate according to the common recognition reached at the 2015 Trilateral Summit.

We highly value the holding of trilateral Ministerial meetings since the last Summit, including by the Ministers in charge of health, education, environment, finance, transport and logistics, culture, sports, economy and trade, and disaster management, which demonstrate the political will to coordinate our policies and collaborate in these areas. We also welcome the Eighth Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in August 2016 in Tokyo to lay the groundwork for the Trilateral Summit by exchanging views on strategic issues of our common interest and concerns.

We will strengthen our cooperation by noting the importance of regularizing trilateral meetings between the Foreign Ministries of our three countries.

We recognize the importance of promoting people-to-people exchanges in broadening and consolidating the foundation of trilateral cooperation.

With this in mind and referring to the PyeongChang Declaration, we look forward to developing trilateral cooperation in various fields including cultural and sports exchanges on the occasion of the Olympic and Paralympic Games held in the three countries, namely the successful PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, as well as the Olympic and Paralympic Games to be held in Tokyo in 2020 and the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to be held in Beijing in 2022.

Reaffirming the importance of expanding tourism exchanges among our countries, we will continue to strive to reach the goal of 30 million people-to-people exchanges among the three countries by 2020 and will further disseminate the attractiveness of our countries through the Visit East Asia Campaign. We strongly support promotion of youth exchanges, and encourage further development of our programs including the Trilateral Youth Summit.

Acknowledging the importance of trilateral cultural exchanges through the East Asian Cultural Cities Program, we congratulate the designation of 2018 East Asia Cultural Cities and expect that cultural exchanges among the present and previous cultural cities will be promoted. Recognizing the significance of education cooperation in deepening mutual understanding, we also praise the trilateral commitment to promoting student exchanges in the field of higher education through the expansion of Collective Actions for Mobility Program of University Students in Asia (CAMPUS Asia), and expect the discussion would continue to further promote the program.

Considering the significance of public diplomacy in enhancing understanding and friendship among the people of the three countries, we welcome the continued consultations on the trilateral forum on public diplomacy.

We support the efforts to reinvigorate various personal and cultural exchange programs among the three countries, such as the Future Leaders Forum, and the Trilateral Cultural Shuttle.

Underlining the importance of cooperation among the three countries in the field of consular affairs, we will look into establishing the Trilateral Consular Consultation in order to strengthen the institutional framework for long-term cooperation by sharing best practices and exploring cooperative initiatives.

We are committed to building an open world economy. We recognize the importance of free and open trade and investment in achieving growth. We remain committed to liberalizing our economies, fighting all forms of protectionism, and improving business environment through our standstill and rollback commitment. We will work together to strengthen the rules-based, free and open, transparent, non-discriminatory and inclusive multilateral trading system underpinned by the WTO. We welcome discussions in the WTO on today’s challenges of international trade including e-commerce, investment facilitation, and Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs). We emphasize the importance of bilateral, regional, and plurilateral trade agreements which complement and strengthen the multilateral trading system. We reaffirm that the Trilateral Free Trade Agreement is an important way to deepen our economic and trade cooperation and promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation in East Asia, and will serve the common interests of the three countries. We reaffirm that we will make greater efforts to accelerate the negotiations on the Trilateral Free Trade Agreement aiming at realizing a comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial FTA with its own value. We also reaffirm our strong commitment to making greater efforts to accelerate negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) towards swift conclusion in achieving of modern, comprehensive, high-quality and mutually beneficial agreement, noting that significant progress on market access and rules is necessary. We will work together to realize high-quality and commercially meaningful outcomes in all areas.

We recognize the need to build an intellectual property (IP) system which values creative ideas and enables fair competition with a view to achieving continued economic growth and prosperity. We also acknowledge the important role of the trilateral IP cooperation, including the Trilateral IP Office Heads Meeting, in improving the regional IP system, and look forward to further development of trilateral cooperation.

Recognizing the negative impacts of excess capacity in industrial sectors, we will work together to address this issue.

We recognize the importance for this region to be better connected and are committed to pursuing trilateral dialogue and consultation in order to enhance regional connectivity and infrastructure cooperation to benefit the East Asian region as a whole. We will further strengthen economic and trade relations and deepen the convergence of interests. In this regard, we will enhance economic cooperation in areas such as supply chain connectivity, e-commerce, content industry, and standardization in order to boost competitiveness. We reaffirm the necessity of cooperation in energy between the three countries for the realization of sustainable development and shared prosperity in Northeast Asia. In this regard, we decide to conclude a LNG cooperation MOU between the three governments on an appropriate occasion in order to improve the transparency and liquidity of the Northeast Asian LNG market.

In light of the importance of e-commerce in the generation of new economic value, we share the view that the pragmatic cooperation on e-commerce on the basis of mutual benefit is in the interest of three countries.

We also acknowledge the value of the ongoing cooperation among the three countries in the fields of customs and transport for ensuring trade facilitation and security. In particular, being the host-countries of the large-scale international events in the coming years such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we reaffirm the significance of protecting the border, while facilitating the legitimate flow of goods and passengers, and welcome the decision at the Tripartite Customs Heads’ Meeting held in Tokyo in November 2017 to continue to exchange relevant information and share experiences.

Against the background of uncertainty of global economy with risks posed by a retreat from cross-border integration and faster-than-expected tightening in global financial conditions, we will continue a high degree of communication and coordination among the three countries to cope with possible financial instability. We will strengthen the regional financial cooperation by increasing the readiness and, effectiveness of Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM), further enhancing ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO)’s surveillance and organizational capacity to fulfill its mandate as an independent, credible and professional international organization, and advancing the Asian Bond Market Initiative (ABMI). In this regard, we welcome the successful progress of the first CMIM Periodic Review and look forward to its successful completion, which contributes to stronger CMIM as a regional financial safety net by reinforcing the financing assistance including extended supporting periods in the case of IMF Linked Portion, establishing a better coordination process with the IMF to facilitate co-financing, and enhancing communication with all relevant parties to secure market confidence when CMIM is activated. We commend AMRO for its continued efforts to support CMIM implementation and to establish and expand regional and global partnership, and its attainment of UN Permanent Observer status. We also welcome the decision on capital increase of the Credit Guarantee and Investment Facility (CGIF) by its contributors in December 2017.

We emphasize the importance of jointly addressing common challenges related to human security, such as health and ageing society. Recognizing the importance of strengthening public health emergency preparedness and response, tackling antimicrobial resistance, and of achieving Universal Health Coverage, we assert the importance of our continuous cooperation in these fields. We will also reinforce collaboration on quarantine at point of entry.

In addition, we will expand our cooperation in the health service industry and telemedicine, and promote the exchanges of relevant information and personnel with a view to reducing non-communicable diseases such as cancer, as well as infectious diseases, which pose a serious threat to human health. We will actively share information and policies to cope with an aging population and to promote healthy aging, while striving to host the Trilateral Policy Dialogue on Aging on an ongoing basis. We will promote exchange and resource sharing in the area of assistive devices, physical and ICT accessibility and explore ways to enable persons with disabilities to participate in the rapidly developing internet economy and upgrade significantly the level and quality of their participation in all aspects of regional, economic and social activities. We will strive to make maximum use of science as well as Information and Communication Technology (ICT), such as brain science, technology for responding to climate change, technology for overcoming disability, Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to promote economic growth and social welfare, and to address global issues. In addition, we recognize the importance of collaboration in the field of communications, including 5G mobile communications and global roaming for promoting mutual exchanges and cooperation. We will facilitate joint research, technology cooperation, information sharing and human resources exchanges under Trilateral ICT Ministers’ Meeting. We also welcome and further encourage cooperation among corporate sectors, academia, think-tanks and related entities in this field.

We are committed to further strengthening trilateral policy consultation on cyber affairs including countering cybercrime, as well as on countering terrorism and violent extremism. We are committed to ensuring a secure ICT environment in which all sectors are able to enjoy its benefits and reaffirm the importance of collectively addressing issues of security in the use of ICTs. We welcome and support the cumulative reports of the UN Group of Governmental Experts (UNGGE) in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security, which affirm that international law, in particular the UN Charter, is applicable and essential to maintaining peace and stability and promoting an open, secure, stable, accessible and peaceful ICT environment. In light of security challenges in the region, we will improve trilateral communication and cooperation on disarmament and non-proliferation. We will also continue the nuclear safety cooperation in the framework of Top Regulators’ Meeting.

In achieving sustainable development based on our commitment to the Agenda 2030, we will further enhance our cooperation in economic, social and environmental dimensions. We welcome the progress achieved in the on-going tripartite cooperative activities under the umbrella of the Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting (TEMM) and, reaffirm our commitment to supporting and promoting the joint effort to tackle issues of common interest including prevention of air pollution and marine litter in the region as well as promotion of circular economy and resource efficiency. We look forward to the development of the Tripartite Cooperation Network for Environmental Pollution Prevention and Control Technologies.

We also underline the significance of cooperation in agriculture, transboundary animal diseases, forestry and biodiversity including invasive alien species management and sustainable use of living marine resources. We reaffirm our continuous efforts to strengthen our response to climate change, and reiterate our strong commitment to fully implementing the Paris Agreement. We endorse the Joint Statement of the Second Trilateral High-Level Dialogue on the Arctic held in Tokyo in June 2017, and reconfirm the importance of the trilateral cooperation on the Arctic, especially in the area of scientific research.

We also reaffirm our commitment to strengthening cooperation in disaster risk reduction, based on the principles and measures in the Cooperation on Disaster Management, adopted at the Fourth Trilateral Summit in 2011, recognizing the steady progress in such forums as the Trilateral Ministerial Meeting on Disaster Management and the Trilateral Tabletop Exercise.

Acknowledging the importance of effective implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 for substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health, we will continue to make joint efforts in raising public awareness. In particular, we welcome the Kuroshio Declaration which was adopted in the High School Students Summit on World Tsunami Awareness Day.

We share the intention to explore the “3+1” modality, including through strengthening trilateral dialogue and consultation, to promote sustainable development in the region and beyond by sharing our development experiences and deepening practical cooperation in various areas.

Regional and Global Situations

We are committed to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We reaffirm that maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula as well as in Northeast Asia is our common interest and responsibility. We stress that it is only the international cooperation on and the comprehensive resolution of concerns of the parties, in accordance with relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions, that will pave the way for the bright future for the DPRK. The leaders of the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Korea hope that the abductions issue between Japan and the DPRK will be resolved through dialogue as soon as possible.

Recognizing the importance of cooperation in regional and international fora, we will work in line to bring concrete and successful outcomes in the frameworks such as ASEAN+3 (APT), East Asia Summit (EAS), Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and G20 including 2019 G20 Summit to be held in Osaka, Japan. We note the progress made in the follow-up to the East Asia Vision Group II selected recommendations, including the vision to realize an East Asia Economic Community by 2020, to promote APT cooperation.

We look forward to the next meeting under China’s Chairpersonship.