1. The Korea National Diplomatic Academy, together with the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) and with the support of the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Korea and the European External Action Service (EEAS), will host the second ROK-EU meeting on cooperation on the Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative (NAPCI) in Brussels, Belgium, on June 18 and 19.

◦ The meeting will consist of an opening ceremony and an open session on the topic of the meeting on June 18; and closed-door sessions on different fields of cooperation under NAPCI, including environment, cyber space, disaster management and healthcare, on June 19.

2. The meeting will bring together delegates from the ROK, the EU and other countries related to NAPCI. Among the government delegates will be Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Kim Hong-kyun; Acting Managing Director for Asia and the Pacific Ugo Astuto of the European External Action Service (EEAS); Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues Robert King of the US Department of State; Deputy Director-General for Asian Affairs Xing Haiming of the Chinese Foreign Ministry; and diplomats at Embassies in Belgium. Also included in the participants will be Secretary-General Iwatani Shigeo of the ROK-Japan-China Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat and experts in various areas from Northeast Asian countries, the US and Europe. The meeting will cover NAPCI and ways to advance multilateral cooperation in the region as well as ways for Northeast Asia and Europe to work more closely together.

◦ The meeting will mark the first of its kind for regional mechanisms with experiences in multilateral cooperation and countries related to NAPCI to get together for comprehensive discussions on the way forward for multilateral cooperation in Northeast Asia. As such, it is expected to serve as an opportunity to reaffirm the EU’s strong support for NAPCI and the commitment of countries concerned to cooperation on the policy, as well as an opportunity for more in-depth discussions on cooperation on soft security fields as called for by NAPCI.

3. Deputy Minister Kim will deliver opening remarks, where he will speak about the progress in and future plans for the implementation of NAPCI, including the 2015 NAPCI forum to take place in Seoul in the second half of 2015 and the second high-level inter-governmental meeting on NAPCI. In addition, he will ask for continued attention and support of European and other countries concerned in that regard.


* unofficial translation