1. The second meeting of the Joint Committee on Humanities Exchanges between the Republic of Korea and China took place in Xian, China, on November 20, with First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong and his Chinese counterpart Liu Zhenmin leading their respective delegations. The meeting was attended by representatives from a total of 21 organizations, including relevant government agencies, organizations, and provincial governments of the two countries.

2. In the meeting, Vice Minister Cho stated that strengthening humanities exchanges between the ROK and China plays an important role in enhancing strategic communications in the political and security arenas and promoting economic and social cooperation in a mutually-beneficial manner, as well as in making substantive progress in the “ROK-China strategic cooperative partnership.” To strengthen bilateral cooperation in those areas, he proposed expanding the scope of humanities exchange projects, increasing the private sector’s participation in the projects, and ways to systematically operate the Joint Committee to efficiently manage a range of humanities exchange projects.

o Vice Minister Liu Zhenmin agreed on his proposals and offered to make best use of the Joint Committee as an important channel for strengthening humanities exchanges between the two countries by expanding the budget and administrative support for humanities exchange projects.

3. The two sides shared the view that 19 humanities exchange projects, announced during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the ROK in July this year, had been successfully implemented this year.

o The two sides assessed that progress had been made especially in strengthening communications between humanities academics of the two countries, facilitating exchanges between future generations, including youths, widening cultural consensus among nationals of the two countries, and extending the scope of humanities exchanges to provincial areas.

4. The two sides also reached a broad agreement on humanities exchange projects to be implemented next year and decided to jointly pursue some 40 humanities exchange projects following additional coordination.

o Projects to be conducted next year will include key exchange projects (young leaders forum, meeting on cultural exchanges, activities to promote the two countries’ tourism year, etc.); expand the number of organizations handling projects and the scope of projects; continue to implement some projects conducted this year to secure the continuity of the projects; and focus on strengthening the interactive nature of projects.

o In addition, the two sides selected Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and Hainan Province, which mark the 20th anniversary of a sisterhood relationship in 2015, as “thematic cities for humanities exchanges,” one of projects to be conducted next year.

5. As part of efforts to make substantive progress in the ROK-China strategic cooperative partnership, the ROK and Chinese Presidents, during President Park’s state visit to China in June, 2013, agreed to pursue projects to strengthen humanities exchanges and create the ROK-China Joint Committee on Humanities Exchanges, which aims to smoothly implement the projects and is led by Vice Foreign Ministers of the two countries. The first meeting of the Committee took place in Seoul in November, 2013. 


                     Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

*unofficial translation