Negotiators from South Korea, China and Japan met in Beijing on Monday for a fifth round of talks on a trilateral free-trade agreement, a Seoul delegate said, setting aside diplomatic tensions between Japan and the two Asian neighbors over their shared history.

South Korea’s chief negotiator, Assistant Commerce Minister Woo Tae-hee, kicked off the talks at a hotel in Beijing by shaking hands and exchanging greetings with China’s assistant commerce minister, Wang Shouwen, and Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Yasumasa Nagamine, the delegate said.

“The atmosphere was amicable,” the delegate who attended the closed-door talks said on condition of anonymity, declining to elaborate on the prospects for the meeting.

Since launching the talks in late 2012, the three Asian nations have so far reported little progress toward a deal that, if successful, would create one of the world’s biggest economic blocs. (Yonhap)