Seoul, Aug 11 (IANS) Agriculture ministers of South Korea, China and Japan held a meeting on Monday to discuss food security, animal disease response, sustainable farming and other issues, ending a seven-year hiatus in the countries’ trilateral talks, Seoul’s agriculture ministry said.

South Korean Agriculture Minister Song Mi-ryung met with her counterparts from China and Japan — Han Jun and Shinjiro Koizumi, respectively — in Incheon, about 30 kilometers west of Seoul, to resume the trilateral meeting, which had been suspended for seven years partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

The ministers came together to discuss six agricultural issues: food security, response to animal diseases, sustainable farming, revitalization of rural areas, cooperation on the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) and international cooperation, reports Yonhap news agency.

Monday’s meeting followed the 2025 APEC Food Security Ministerial Meeting, held over the weekend in Incheon.

In the trilateral meeting, the ministers agreed on the importance of intelligence sharing and cooperation to respond to global challenges in the agriculture sector, such as climate change, the spread of infectious animal diseases and supply chain instability, the ministry said.

The three countries also agreed to join hands for developing smart farming technologies, supporting the transition to carbon neutral agriculture and fostering young farmers, it added.

After the meeting, Song and her counterparts adopted a joint statement calling for efforts to promote sustainable growth of the agriculture sector and bolster food security while agreeing to hold regular meetings.

“At a time when the agricultural environment is rapidly changing due to such factors as the climate crisis and supply chain instability, it is highly meaningful that the three countries have gathered in one place to share concerns and seek solutions together,” Song said.

“I hope that the discussions initiated at this meeting will lead to deeper and more practical cooperation in the future,” she added.

Song also held a bilateral meeting with Koizumi to discuss ways to expand Seoul’s exports of food and agricultural products to Japan and deepen cooperation on animal disease response.

The bilateral meeting also marked the first of its kind in seven years.

During their talks, Song told Koizumi that cooperation between Korea and Japan can help enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of the countries’ agriculture industries as they share similar systems and challenges, according to her office.

—IANS

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