Japan, China, South Korea FMs to meet in late March

Japan, China and South Korea are planning to hold a foreign ministerial meeting on March 21-22 in what would be the first such talks in three years, Japan's Kyodo News Agency reported on Wednesday. A major focus of the meeting in Seoul, which would be the first since April 2012, will be whether the three countries set the stage for a trilateral summit involving Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean President Park-geun Hye, the report said, citing sources familiar with preparations. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida is also considering holding bilateral talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, it said.
The first foreign ministers' three-way meeting was launched in 2007, and had been annually held till 2012. The trilateral session has been suspended due to deterioration in Japan-China relations over the disputed islands, a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea administered by Japan but claimed by Beijing and Taiwan.