KUALA LUMPUR - Japan, China and South Korea have held a health ministerial meeting and agreed to continue strengthening cooperation in the healthcare field.

The closed-door meeting took place in Seoul, last Sunday, with sources saying South Korea, the chair of the meeting, may have considered the tense ties between Japan and China.

Japan was represented by Health Minister Ueno Kenichiro, South Korea by Health and Welfare Minister Jeong Eun-kyeong, and China sent a bureau chief level official.

The three sides discussed promoting universal health coverage, or UHC, using artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technologies to ensure everyone can access quality healthcare at an affordable cost.

The discussions on universal health coverage are also relevant to the growing number of migrant workers and foreign residents in all three countries, many of whom rely on host-country health systems for essential care.

With aging populations accelerating labour shortages, the talks also touched on the growing role of migrant workers in healthcare and caregiving sectors across the region.

The officials also reportedly explored cooperation in developing better medical and nursing services to tackle challenges posed by aging populations. Seoul said a joint statement was adopted at the meeting.

Health ministerial meetings among the three countries have been held almost every year since 2007, usually with partial media access, but the latest session was kept entirely private.

The reason for holding the meeting behind closed doors was not disclosed, while Beijing postponed trilateral culture and tourism ministerial meetings in Macao last month.