国内英语新闻:China, Japan, S. Korea pledge to enhance sports communication, cooperation

TOKYO, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- China, Japan and South Korea pledged to enhance communication and cooperation in the area of sports at their second trilateral sports ministers' meeting that wrapped up here on Thursday.

During the two-day meeting, the three sides reviewed the achievements made since the signing of the PyeongChang Declaration at their first trilateral sports ministers' meeting in 2016 in PyeongChang and discussed ways to further implement the declaration.

The three sides also adopted here a joint declaration called "Tokyo Action Plan" which aims to take the opportunities of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics and Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics to further enhance sports communication and cooperation between the three countries.

Specifically, the three sides pledged to share information and know-how about hosting Olympics Games, to enhance personnel exchanges between various groups such as between coaches, to jointly develop sports industry especially sports tourism and to boost cooperation in areas such as anti-doping.

"To have three consecutive Olympics held in the same area (East Asia) is very significant. Our three countries have a huge potential for taking the opportunity to enhance communication and cooperation," said Gao Zhidan, deputy director of the General Administration of Sport of China.

"To enhance sports communication and cooperation will also help promoting exchanges and friendship between people of the three countries," he added.

Yoshimasa Hayashi, the Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and Do Jong-hwan, South Korean Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, also attended the meeting.

The three sides also decided to hold the third trilateral sports ministers' meeting in China in 2020.