1. The Agreement on the Establishment of the Asian Forest Cooperation Organization (AFoCO) will be brought into force on April 27, 2018.

2. AFoCO is an international organization that the Republic of Korea proposed founding at the ASEAN-ROK Commemorative Summit held in 2009 to mark the 20^th anniversary of bilateral dialogue relations, and spearheaded the establishment thereof with the aim to respond to climate change in Asia, among others.

° AFoCO’s main organs are the Assembly and the Secretariat, and its headquarters are in the ROK for cooperation with relevant international organizations.

3. AFoCO will conduct a variety of forestry cooperation programs designed to manage forests in a sustainable manner and to tackle climate change in the ASEAN countries and the rest of Asia. It will also represent interests of the ROK and its other member states by taking an active part in negotiations on major international issues in the field of forestry.

4. In particular, forestry-related people-to-people and industrial exchanges as well as cooperation in disaster response through the donation of forestry technology are expected to contribute to the ROK’s efforts to create an “ROK-ASEAN community for peace and prosperity for all citizens,” an objective of the ROK government’s “New Southern Policy” for diplomatic diversification.

* unofficial translation