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Trilateral talks signal change in international order

By Li Xiaokun (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-30 07:29

China, the United States and Japan are about to get around the negotiating table for trilateral talks for the first time, something experts believe may herald a change in the international order.

Japanese media reported on Sunday that the three-way discussions would be held in late July in Washington.

Japan's Kyodo News Agency said a meeting of the three countries, which account for 40 percent of the world's GDP, signals change.

The three, especially Japan, are trying to forge a "new triangle relationship", said Wang Ping, a senior expert in Japanese studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"Previously, Japan has followed the US in most cases Now, there are calls inside the Japanese political circle to balance Japan's relationship with China and the US," he said.

The talks will be led on the Chinese side by the director-general of the Policy Planning Department of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Le Yucheng. The US team will be headed by State Department Director of Policy Planning Staff Anne-Marie Slaughter. And the Japanese contingent will be managed by the Japanese Foreign Ministry, said the reports.

The three countries are understood to want to elevate the importance of the talks so that in future they involve representatives at vice-minister level.

The talks are not a new idea. In 2007, China proposed such a trilateral meeting but the idea drew strong opposition from the Republic of Korea (ROK)'s then president, Roh Moo-hyun, who feared they would disturb talks about the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

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The Japanese news reports said the US explained to the ROK that the upcoming trilateral meeting will not touch upon the Korean Peninsula situation. Instead, the session will be restricted global issues such as climate change, energy and Africa development.

Le and Slaughter met in early June in Beijing to exchange views on foreign policy. China and Japan met last week for their semi-annual strategic dialogue. And military dialogue between Beijing and Washington has also recently resumed.

In addition, China and the US will hold their first Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington next month.

Masafumi Iida, a researcher with Japan's National Institute of Defense Studies, has also called for a security dialogue mechanism between the three nations, saying such a thread would complement the upcoming talks because security probably will not be on that agenda, according to Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post.

"The three countries are irreplaceable in terms of keeping regional and global stability and hence there's need for a trilateral security and defense dialogue mechanism to amplify common interests and erase suspicion," he said.