The possibility that the top leaders of China, Japan and Korea may just resume their annual, trilateral summits has just been boosted by the setting of a meeting among the three countries' foreign ministers two months from now.

This after the foreign ministers of the three countries agreed to hold a ministerial meeting, tentatively set in March.

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Japanese media say, the meeting will be held for two days, from March 20 to 21.

The three countries used to conduct an annual summit among their top leaders.

But in 2012, the leaders stopped holding these forums.

Diplomatic ties deteriorated especially between China and Japan after the two countries got embroiled in an intense territorial row.

China took offense when Japan nationalized the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands.

Trilateral discussions only resumed last year in Seoul, but only at the level of deputy foreign ministers.

Those who attended the trilateral talks last September were Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin, South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Lee Kyung-soo and Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama.

Last Wednesday, another meeting among the 3 countries' deputy ministers took place, under a long title, the "10^th Trilateral Senior Foreign Affairs Officials Consultation among China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (|ROK)."

The mission of the event was to see if a talk among their superiors, the foreign ministers, could be arranged.

The last time a full-pledged meeting among foreign ministers was held was in May, 2012.

South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Lee says, "if the trilateral foreign ministers' meeting is held soon, it will undoubtedly give us the opportunity to re-establish the groundwork for building trust and common prosperity."

Now that the foreign ministers' meeting has been scheduled in March, hopes are high that soon, a summit among the three countries' heads of state is not far behind.

The last time Chinese President Xi Jinping, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye met was at the sidelines of the APEC summit in Beijing.

But none of them had mentioned the idea of resuming their yearly trilateral talks.

But Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida is optimistic.

He said, "we will endeavor to hold a trilateral meeting of foreign ministers, with the hope that this will lead to a trilateral summit."

TagsSummit, foreign ministers