Korea, China and Japan have agreed to restart their three-way high-level dialogue in nearly one year in efforts to mend relations eroded by territorial and historical brawls, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said Friday.



The one-day event is slated for Sept. 11 in Seoul, bringing together Lee Kyung-soo, Seoul’s deputy minister for political affairs; Liu Zhenmin, Beijing’s vice foreign minister; and Shinsuke Sugiyama, Tokyo’s deputy minister. It will be the first deputy minister-level gathering since last November and the ninth since its 2007 launch.



The high-level meeting is a major dialogue channel along with the trilateral summit and foreign minister- and deputy director general-level consultations.



“At the ninth edition, the three countries plan to review the current state of trilateral affairs and joint projects, and exchange views on future cooperation and other issues of interest,” Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.



Seoul has managed to get the other two partners onboard despite its severely strained relations with Tokyo and Japan’s reluctance to join the gathering without a clear vision for a tripartite summit.



New programs to be introduced next year are designed to crank up collaboration on areas including maritime affairs and cybersecurity, a ministry official said.



“We’ve proposed resuming the consultations, seeking to maintain the momentum of cooperation between the three countries and expedite discussions on issues at hand as well as next year’s projects,” the official told reporters on customary condition of anonymity.



The focal point is whether the meeting will lay the groundwork for the sides to find middle ground and bring their bi- and trilateral partnerships back on track.



The three countries will likely hold bilateral consultations on the sidelines of the talks. Last year, Korean officials met with their Chinese and Japanese counterparts separately but the latter two did not meet.





A three-way meeting of senior Foreign Ministry officials among Korea, China and Japan in Seoul in November (Yonhap)