Ties that grind.

The article examines how economic links are driving new diplomacy in North-East Asia. Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, met China's president, Hu Jintao, twice last year. Now Japan, China and South Korea have decided, as Yoriko Kawaguchi, Japan's foreign minister, announced this week, to start holding their own three-way gathering every year. The question, of course, is whether they will find anything constructive to talk about. Although history and nationalism grab the headlines, however, there is another way to view all of this bluster. Instead of showing that closer ties are impossible, the mutual accusations and demands for apologies may be more in the nature of ritualistic display, while better relations are quietly constructed. Fast-growing trade and investment links, after all, are rapidly pulling North-East Asia's economies into closer contact.