1. Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Choi Jongmoon attended the opening session of the “International Forum for Trilateral Cooperation” hosted by the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS) in a hybrid online and offline format on the morning of April 27. In his opening remarks, Vice Minister Choi noted with appreciation that “TCS has played a centripetal and bridging role between Korea, China and Japan to promote trilateral cooperation for the last 10 years” and underscored the need to step up trilateral cooperation in response to newly emerging challenges.

※ The Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat is an international organization inaugurated in Seoul in 2011, at the proposal of Korea. The TCS provides support for the trilateral consultative mechanisms and implements cooperation projects.

° Vice Minister Choi pointed out that trilateral cooperation, which has been strengthened in response to the 1997 and 2008 financial crises and the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, now has more than 70 intergovernmental consultative mechanisms including 21 ministerial level meetings and various public-private partnership projects led by the secretariat.

° The Vice Minister stressed that trilateral cooperation can play a pivotal role in maintaining peace and co-prosperity not only in our region but throughout the world beyond and called for a joint effort to advance trilateral relations to a higher level of cooperation in the upcoming post-COVID era.

2. The IFTC is an annual forum held in rotation among Korea, Japan and China to discuss ways to promote trilateral cooperation. This year, the IFTC is held under the theme of “In Light of the TCS 10-Year Anniversary: The New Trilateral Partnership in the Next Decade.”

° The Forum brought together eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Sung-hwan, Ambassador of China to Korea Xing Haiming, Ambassador of Japan to Korea Aiboshi Koichi, and Secretary-General of the TCS Michigami Hisashi, among others.

° The participants of the opening session commended the TCS over its achievements over the past 10 years, and reached a common understanding that closer trilateral cooperation is required in a wide range of areas including climate change, disaster management, health, education and people-to-people exchange.

 ° The Forum consists of three sessions, during which figures from the governments as well as academic and business circles of Korea, China and Japan discussed “new opportunities and challenges for trilateral cooperation and the role of the TCS,” “how to revitalize economic cooperation amid the pandemic” and “how to revitalize trilateral youth exchange for the next decade.”

3. The Korean government which played a leading role in establishing the TCS has endeavored to institutionalize and promote trilateral cooperation and it will continue fully supporting substantive cooperation among the three countries with the TCS playing a central role.