1. The Foreign Ministry, together with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), will host the 2015 OSCE Asian Conference in Seoul on June 1 and 2.

2. The meeting themed “the changing global security environment and visions of multilateral security co-operation in Asia” will come in the year marking the 40th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, which paved the way for peace in Europe. It will consist of three sessions on evolving threats and their implications for security in Europe and Asia; areas of co-operation: cyber security and disaster management; and visions for security co-operation in Asia: experience sharing and new co-operation areas.

3. As a side event of the meeting, a special session will be held on June 1 on the Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative (NAPCI), which is being pursued by the government of the Republic of Korea as part of its trustpolitik efforts, under the theme of “NAPCI and the OSCE’s experience in confidence and security-building measures.”

◦ The meeting will mark the first on NAPCI cooperation between the ROK government and the OSCE, which is known as the most successful multilateral cooperative mechanism in the security history. It is expected to help the OSCE member states better understand NAPCI and share the OSCE’s abundant experiences in multilateral security cooperation and expertise, including the Helsinki Final Act, which marks its 40th anniversary in 2015, thereby playing a big role in the promotion of cooperation with the OSCE with regard to NAPCI.

4. The OSCE Asian Conference will bring together some 100 people, including government officials of the 57 member states and 11 partner countries for co-operation of the OSCE, Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier and other officials of the OSCE Secretariat as well as other international organizations, and experts.

◦ The opening ceremony, for the first time ever for the OSCE Asian Conference, will be held at the ministerial level, featuring keynote speeches by the ROK’s Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter of Switzerland, the chair country of the OSCE’s Asian Contact Group (ACG), and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Tanasak Patimapragorn of Thailand, the host of the 2016 OSCE Asian Conference.

◦ The ROK’s Ambassador to Austria Song Young-wan, together with the Ambassador of Serbia, the OSCE chair, to the OSCE, will preside over the meeting. Second Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul will host a welcoming dinner for the participants on June 1.

5. The conference, the fourth of its kind to take place in the ROK following the ones held in 2001, 2005 and 2010, is expected to serve as a good opportunity to discuss ways to respond to newly emerging global security threats, including those concerning foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs), violent extremism, cyber security and disaster management, as well as ways to bolster multilateral security cooperation in Asia.

* unofficial translation