Time for a quick look now at the history of these trilateral meetings.

The mechanism of talks was established in 2007. Foreign ministers from China, South Korea and Japan use the platform to exchange views on international events of common concern, and to plan further cooperation among the three countries.

The talks were planned to be held annually. The sixth round of talks was held in Ningbo city in China in 2012. Following that session, Tokyo's territorial claim over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea which belong to China as well as its unrepentant attitude toward crimes committed during World War II, damaged relations with Beijing and Seoul.

That led to a delay in holding the seventh round of trilateral meetings, which eventually took place in Seoul in 2015.