Japan and South Korea resume economic discussions as global dangers loom. On Tuesday, Japan and South Korea held their first finance leaders’ meeting in seven years. They decided to begin regular conversations as regional tensions and the sluggish economy pushed them to cooperate and repair relations.
The restart of bilateral finance negotiations precedes Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Sunday and Monday travel to South Korea for meetings with President Yoon Suk Yeol.
This week in Incheon, South Korea, Asian policymakers met for the annual Asian Development Bank (ADB) meeting to discuss regional economic challenges and ways to strengthen buffers against shocks.
Asian finance officials released a unified statement following their Tuesday meeting, warning of threats to the region’s economy and urging governments to remain cautious of potential spillovers from the recent U.S. and European banking sector upheaval.
“Japan and South Korea are important neighbours that must cooperate to address various challenges surrounding the global economy, as well as the regional and international community,” Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki said during the meeting with his South Korean colleague Choo Kyung-ho.
North Korea’s nuclear missile development and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are geopolitical issues. “Japan considers these unacceptable and something the two countries must address,” he added.
Choo said the two nations could improve private-public ties in semiconductors and batteries.
“At an appropriate timing,” Suzuki told reporters following the bilateral meeting, Japan and South Korea would begin the yearly financial conversation.
South Korea’s finance ministry said Choo will meet Suzuki again in Japan this year.
Disagreements about Japan’s 1910-1945 colonization of Korea have strained relations between the two North Asian U.S. allies.
Washington has urged both nations to overcome these disagreements to effectively resist China, North Korea, and other regional dangers.
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