South Korea, China and Japan vowed Wednesday to try to restore stagnant trilateral cooperation as they prepare for a meeting of their foreign ministers slated for late March.

South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Lee Kyung-soo met with his Chinese and Japanese counterparts, Liu Zhenmin and Shinsuke Sugiyama, respectively, to discuss how to revive trilateral cooperation amid Tokyo-sparked historical tension in the region.

The three-way, ministerial-level meeting, the first since September, is a preparatory step toward holding upcoming talks of their foreign ministers that may take place on March 21 and 22 in Seoul, the first in three years.

The senior officials discussed various cooperative projects such as nuclear safety, disaster relief and cyberspace security, according to foreign ministry officials.

Lee said that the Wednesday talks had a "clear and firm purpose" with which the three nations can prepare for the meeting of the top diplomats, adding that they are moving in a direction toward the restoration of the three-way cooperation.

"If the trilateral foreign ministers' meeting is held soon, it will undoubtedly give us the opportunity to re-establish the groundwork for trust-building and common prosperity, by injecting momentum to trilateral cooperation and revitalizing various consultative mechanisms and projects among the three countries," Lee said at the start of the meeting.

The move to hold a foreign ministers' meeting is aimed at rekindling the momentum for trilateral cooperation at a time when South Korea's and China's bilateral relations with Japan remain strained due to history and territory rows.

Seoul has slammed Japan for refusing to face up to its wartime atrocities, such as its sexual enslavement of Korean and other Asian women during World War II.

China and Japan have been sparring over a territorial dispute involving islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

A trilateral meeting of foreign ministers has not been held since April 2012 due to such strained relations, while a three-way summit has also not been held since May 2012 amid long-standing historical grievances.

The senior diplomats stressed the importance of reviving trilateral cooperation at a time when they face a set of challenges in the region.

"This progress has not come easily and should be cherished," Liu said, referring to the move to hold the foreign ministers' talks. "This will help put trilateral cooperation back on a healthy track."

They also expressed hope that the planned meeting of their foreign ministers could pave the way for a summit of their political leaders some day.

"We must not be satisfied with where we are. We must show the shared commitment of the three countries at an even higher level, so that we can attain what we may call the full normalization of the trilateral cooperation mechanism," Lee said.

Sugiyama echoed such a view by saying that the foreign ministers' meeting could "hopefully be followed further by a meeting of "the highest level" of the three countries.

During a regional summit in Myanmar in November, South Korean President Park Geun-hye expressed her hope to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a trilateral summit following an envisioned meeting of their foreign ministers in the near future.

Since taking office in early 2013, Park has shunned a bilateral summit with Abe, calling on Japan to first sincerely apologize for the sex slavery issue.

After the meeting, a Seoul official told reporters that the three nations saw the need to hold a high-level trilateral meeting some day. But experts said that there are doubts about whether the summit can take place in the near future, given China's reserved attitude.

"The holding of a foreign ministers' meeting can be regarded as big progress for the restoration of trilateral cooperation," the official said, asking not to be named.

"Even if there may be not a three-way summit in the near term, the meeting of the top diplomats would help improve (geopolitical) situations in Northeast Asia."

(From news reports)