Global Asia - September 2024

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When leaders from Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul sat down in the South Korean capital in late May for their ninth trilateral summit in 25 years, it was the first time in almost five years that they had convened in this format. The lockdowns after Covid-19 accounted for much of that hiatus, but so too did some thorny security issues that linger among the three countries, especially in the context of simmering tensions between China and the United States.
Still, the Seoul summit pointed to a wide swath of areas where greater co-operation in Northeast Asia is possible. From climate change, trade, public health, aging populations, digital transformation, disaster relief, educational and people- to-people exchanges, there are plenty of ways that China, Japan and South Korea can co-operate and forge closer relations. The leaders of the three countries underscored that optimism. Even the prospect of a long-awaited free trade agreement among these economic powerhouses was not off the table.
Traditionally, aspirations for greater integration in Asia have expressed themselves in the broader framework of ASEAN Plus Three, which groups China, Japan and South Korea alongside the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. But efforts by the trilateral summit framework to seek greater integration face especially acute security challenges related to the US alliances with Japan and South Korea, countries with significant economic ties to China. North Korea also looms large for South Korea, Japan and China in their trilateral relations. In this cover package of Global Asia, we examine the opportunities and obstacles facing greater integration in Northeast Asia and what role the trilateral summit framework can play.

Global Asia Magazine Description:

Global Asia is a quarterly publication of the East Asia Foundation. The foundation, established in Seoul in January 2005, strives to promote peace, prosperity, security and sustainability in East Asia by creating an open and creative forum for the exchange of ideas on regional co-operation and integration, among other goals.
The mission we have set for ourselves with Global Asia is both bold and urgent: It is to provide a compelling, serious, and responsible forum for distinguished thinkers, policymakers, political leaders and business people to debate the most important issues in Asia today.
Global Asia is not a journal with a fixed point of view, or a particular agenda. Our aim is to give voice to the global dimension of what is happening in Asia. In our pages and on our web site, we aim for Asia to speak to the world, and the world to Asia. That is important at a time when this region is playing an ever greater role in world affairs.
There are other fine publications on international affairs. What sets us apart is our focus: Asia. We believe that the world is moving into “the Age of Asia,” to borrow a phrase from one of the articles in the inaugural issue of Global Asia in September 2006. This transformation is not going to occur overnight, but it has already begun.
The region’s dynamic economic growth, stable and accountable political systems, maturing democracies, and evolving sense of community are giving Asia greater weight in the world. These developments will have enormous implications for governments, businesses, societies and individuals across the globe. How that transformation is viewed, and shaped, from within Asia and how it is perceived outside Asia is an essential part of the story we have to tell.
The forces of globalization are having a profound impact throughout the world. And they are being influenced and channeled in different ways in different parts of the world. Ours is the story of Asia’s experience with globalization, and the ideas and debates influencing it. In pursuing our mission, we aim to play a part, however modest, in helping to shape the future of Asia.