1. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se attended the 17th foreign ministerial meeting of the ASEAN+3 in Vientiane, Laos, on July 26. In the meeting, the top diplomats reviewed the achievements of the ASEAN+3, which, since its launch during the financial crisis in Asia in 1997, has been actively undertaken functional cooperation in various fields, including finance, trade and food security; sought the way forward for cooperation; and exchanged views on such regional issues as those concerning the Korean Peninsula and cooperation among the Republic of Korea, Japan and China.

2. The Ministers took note of the ASEAN+3’s leading role in functional cooperation in East Asia; brought renewed attention to the launch of the ASEAN Community in 2015 as a new momentum for cooperation in East Asia; and voiced hope that the ASEAN+3 will continue to spearhead cooperation in the region in diverse areas, including finance, agriculture and disaster risk reduction.

° Minister Yun urged that the follow-up measures be taken to the report issued by the East Asia Vision Group II (EAVG II), which had been launched at the initiative of the ROK and presented in 2012 a vision of “realizing an East Asia economic community by 2020.” He also underscored the need to set a new direction of cooperation, including by establishing a new Cooperation Work Plan (2018-2022) of the ASEAN+3 that marks its 20th anniversary in 2017, in line with EAVG II’s recommendations in its report.

° Minister Yun also stressed that in a bid to continuously step up regional cooperation, the cooperation among the member states of the ASEAN+3 and that among the ROK, Japan and China should be undertaken in a mutually complementary manner. In that vein, he expressed hope that the ROK-Japan-China trilateral cooperation, which had been restored on track on the occasion of the trilateral summit talks in November 2015, will remain in place in 2016 and thereby contribute to peace and prosperity in East Asia.

3. With regard to regional and global issues, the Ministers, expressing concern over the fact that the situation on the Korean Peninsula, particularly North Korea’s nuclear and missile development, is posing a grave threat to peace and stability in the region, urged North Korea to abide by UN Security Council resolutions.

° Minister Yun emphasized that amid North Korea’s continued efforts to advance its nuclear capability and threats in disregard of Security Council resolutions, the member states of the ASEAN+3, in a bid to safeguard peace and stability in the region, should completely and thoroughly implement UN Security Council Resolution 2270 and continue sending to North Korea a united, strong message.


* unofficial translation