Leaders of China, Japan and South Korea have held their first trilateral summit in more than three years. They agreed to hold this summit regularly and reaffirmed the importance of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attends the sixth China-Japan-South Korea leaders' meeting held in Seoul on Nov 1, 2015, resuming the trilateral cooperation mechanism after a three-and-a-half-year suspension. [Photo: gov.cn]?

Leaders of China, South Korea and Japan signed a joint declaration on peace and cooperation in Northeast Asia on Sunday, after their first trilateral meeting in more than three years.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, South Korean President Park Geun-hye, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed that maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula is a common interest for all three countries.

"We reaffirmed the need to maintain our goal to denuclearize the DPRK, and to work together for an early resumption of the six-party talks," Park said.

They also agreed it was time to accelerate free trade pact negotiations across Northeast Asia, including the 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

"We hope to work towards an early ratification of the China-South Korea FTA, and hope for progress in the China-Japan-South Korea FTA and RCEP negotiations," Premier Li said.

The summit comes amid ongoing concerns over the global economy, and saw the three nations set aside diplomatic differences.

"Relations among the three countries have always been about walking on a tight rope between managing tensions and economic cooperation. This summit leans more towards strengthening cooperation rather than managing tensions, hence discussions on a three-way FTA and RCEP would have played an important catalyst," Kim Kyung-Joo, research fellow of LG Economic Research Institute, said.

This meeting used to be held every year since 2008, but stopped after the 5th round in 2012 amid diplomatic tensions. But the three leaders agreed this time that talks should take place annually from now on, unaffected by bilateral issues. They hoped today's meeting would act as a catalyst in bringing the three nations closer than ever.

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