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The tripartite summit came a full four years after president Kim Dae-jung, Bush and Japanese premier Junichiro Koizumi met in October 2002. The frequency of summits between countries reflects the closeness and depth of their relations. That the three countries held none in the past four years despite so constantly citing their cooperation amid the aggravating North Korean nuclear crisis, from the announcement that the North has nuclear weapons to nuclear test, shows just how estranged they has become, and how empty the diplomatic rhetoric was. Taking advantage of the schism, North Korea felt free to perform its antics.

On the surface, it was Korea-Japan conflict over historical issues -- Japanese textbooks and claims to Korea’s Dokdo islets -- that were largely to blame after Koizumi took power in Japan. But a more fundamental reason lies in this administration’s disruption of our relationships with the U.S. and Japan, the pillar of our security over the past five decades, without offering any practical alternatives. A case in point is the turmoil caused by the president’s call for Korea to become a power “balancer” in Northeast Asia. It was bragging without backing in fact, like so many other sloppy -isms and fixed ideas our government has been bandying about in defiance of the national interest.

If the summit is to serve as a momentum for restoring our relationships with the U.S. and Japan, a few things need to be taken care of.

First, we must stop conducting our external relations based on 19th century-style ideologies like self-reliance versus imperialism. To cooperate with our allies, we need a pragmatic and realistic diplomatic attitude that can find common denominators in national interests based on common values.

Second, we must keep in mind that diplomacy is a kind of business. In business, there must be trust that contracts will be honored, so the basis of diplomacy is to keep a promise. A country’s deeds must be consistent with its words.

Third, there has to be an end to needless provocations of the partner. This is something Korea should keep in mind in its relationship with the U.S. and Japan must remember in its dealing with Korea. As a start, the three countries should have the wisdom to build up trust through cooperation on matters they can agree on. Then they can move on to more difficult issues based on that trust.

Even if the summit fails to restore the three countries’ relationship to the past level, it should provide an opportunity to stop and reconsider, preventing another disaster in cooperation in the face of the North Korean nuclear crisis.