1. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted the 3^rd virtual meeting on “Northeast Asia Cooperation for Health Security (NEACHS)” on the evening of May 27.

ㅇ The meeting brought together director-level officials of the foreign affairs and health ministries of Korea, the U.S., China, Japan, Russia, and Mongolia, as well as diplomats at the embassies of those countries in Korea.

※ The outline of “Northeast Asia Cooperation for Health Security (NEACHS)”

- NEACHS is a regional cooperation initiative aimed at strengthening joint response capacity for transboundary health security issues including COVID-19 and other new infectious diseases.

- The initiative proposed by President Moon Jae-in in his keynote speech at the UN General Assembly in September 2020 was launched at the first working-level virtual meeting at the end of 2020.

- The 2^nd virtual meeting was held on March 30, 2021.

(The meeting held in the form of track 1 among diplomatic and health officials presented ways to strengthen the momentum for implementing the initiative of NEACHS and institutionalizing regional cooperation.)

2. The participants extended appreciation to the Korean government for its leading role in regional cooperation on health security issues through the initiative amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, and exchanged views on ways to implement substantive cooperation projects for consolidating and institutionalizing NEACHS.

ㅇ Given the importance of the rapid response to the urgent need for medical supplies when new infectious diseases occur, the Korean side suggested a way to implement substantive cooperation on “medical supplies reserve for public health emergencies” as soon as possible.

ㅇ In addition, the Korean side underscored the necessity to develop “joint education and training programs for response to infectious diseases” and suggested sharing information about the system for responding to COVID-19 in regional countries as well as holding a virtual meeting involving experts in the areas of health and disease control from relevant countries in the second half of this year to identify the specific need for joint education and training programs. The participants agreed to continue consultations on drawing up specific plans.  

3. The participants suggested the necessity for NEACHS to coordinate with the existing mechanisms including “ASEAN+3” and “East Asia Summit (EAS)” and discussed ways to institutionalize NEACHS including adopting the initiative’s terms of reference (TOR) and elevating the working-level meeting to a higher level meeting.

4. Meanwhile, the participants noted North Korea’s future participation in NEACHS is important for joint response to and cooperation on transboundary health security issues including COVID-19.

5. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a bid for NEACHS to serve as a pivot of regional cooperation on health security led by Korea, will continue efforts to strengthen the momentum for the initiative.