Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday called for more substantial progress in the free trade talks between China,Japan and the Republic of Korea to enable new breakthroughs in trilateral trade and economic cooperation.

Li, speaking at the Seventh China-Japan-ROK Business Summit in Chengdu, said the establishment of a free trade zone between the three countries will further give play to complementary strengths and make the trilateral cooperation more beneficial to the three peoples.

The trilateral FTZ will further improve the level of trade facilitation and investment liberalization and show that the three countries, all major trading nations in the world, are upholding multilateralism and free trade with concrete actions, he said.

It will also help the three nations jointly cope with the global downward pressure, achieve stable economic growth and accelerate the course of regional economic integration, he said.

He also called upon the three sides to keep up the momentum from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership talks and push for the signing of the free trade agreement by 2020.