Japan and South Korea yesterday held their first finance leaders’ meeting in seven years and agreed to resume regular dialogue, as tensions in the region and slowing growth prod them to increase cooperation and mend strained relations.
The resumption of bilateral financial discussions comes ahead of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s planned trip to visit South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol next week.
It also comes as Asian policymakers, gathering for the annual Asian Development Bank meeting this week in the South Korean city of Incheon, discuss regional economic challenges and ways to beef up buffers against certain shocks.
Photo: Reuters
“Japan and South Korea are important neighbors that must cooperate to address various challenges surrounding the global economy, as well as the regional and international community,” Japanese Minister of Finance Shunichi Suzuki said at the meeting with South Korean Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho.
“As for geopolitical challenges, we’re experiencing incidents like North Korea’s nuclear missile development and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Japan sees these as unacceptable, and something the two countries must address together,” Suzuki said.
Choo said that the two countries can bolster private and government partnerships in high-tech industries such as semiconductors and batteries.
Japan and South Korea are to resume regular finance dialogue, likely to be held annually, at “an appropriate timing,” Suzuki told reporters after the meeting.
Choo is expected to visit Japan this year for another meeting with Suzuki, the South Korean Ministry of Economy and Finance said.
“Despite the close economic relationships among China, Japan and Korea, we have observed a recent slowdown in economic relations, particularly in terms of trade in goods and services,” the finance leaders of the three countries said in a statement issued after their trilateral meeting yesterday.
Building stronger buffers against shocks was expected to be among key topics of debate when finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the bigger ASEAN+3 group — which comprises the 10-member ASEAN and Japan, China and South Korea — met later yesterday.
Japan, which cochairs this year’s ASEAN+3 meeting with Indonesia, hopes to discuss a network of currency swap lines called the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM).
Indonesian Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati, cochair of the meeting, said the cooperation of member states on the CMIM and other initiatives was vital for regional development and prosperity.
Specifically, Tokyo is keen to propose a facility that enhances the use of existing currency swap lines and allows members to tap funds in emergencies, three sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
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