China, Japan, South Korea to hold Shanghai environment talks
Environment ministers will meet this week to address ways of reducing yellow dust, smog and maritime pollution
The Environment ministers of China, Japan and South Korea will meet this week to address ways of reducing yellow dust, smog and maritime pollution.
China’s Chen Jining, Japan’s Yoshio Mochizuki, and South Korea’s Yoon Seong-kyu will hold talks in Shanghai on Thursday.
The ministers will also hold one-on-one meetings on Wednesday, according to South Korean diplomatic reports.
South Korea, China and Japan have held the annual meeting of their environmental ministers since 1999 despite tensions over issues including border disputes.
China did not send its minister to the talks in 2013 and 2014, when relations with Japan deteriorated amid a row over the sovereignty of islands in the East China Sea.
In a sign of easing diplomatic tensions, the foreign ministers of the three countries held their first trilateral talks in three years in March.
After three decades of intense industrialisation, air pollution in China reaches hazardous levels on a regular basis with levels of particulate matter rising to nearly 40 times the limits set by the World Health Organization (WHO) during the winter months.
The levels of air pollution in South Korea have also been spiking during the winter months, as westerly winds carry the smog from China towards the Korean Peninsula.
