The Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS) hosted International Forum for Trilateral Cooperation (IFTC) 2019—Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of Trilateral Cooperation on May 10 in Beijing, China, in collaboration with China Public Diplomacy Association.
Under the theme of “Trilateral Cooperation 3.0 – Charting New Pathways to Shared Vision” , the forum gathered high-profile government officials, renowned scholars, journalists and diplomatic community, and attracted more than 300 participants from the three countries.
LEE Jong-heon, Secretary-General of the TCS highlighted the remarkable progress achieved in a wide range of areas of trilateral cooperation in the past 20 years, and stressed the importance and necessity to continue to boost the momentum for cooperation where trilateral cooperation can offer substantial benefits to the lives of the people. In addition, he said TCS would like to play a connecting bridge role of three countries as a facilitator or thruster of cooperation.
WANG Yi，State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of China attended the Forum and made an in-depth speech in congratulating the Forum. He pointed that in the past two decades, trilateral cooperation has achieved a lot, overcoming difficulties and making important contribution to people’s wellbeing, and now on a new historical starting point，He summarized the past 20 years of development of trilateral cooperation as follows: 1, Political trust is a stabilizer; 2,Business cooperation is a ballast; 3,Practical cooperation is the driving force; 4. People to people exchange is the positive energy. In addition, he said now trilateral cooperation is facing new challenges. To bring trilateral cooperation to a new height, the three countries should jointly promote regional peace and stability, jointly uphold multilateralism, jointly explore new methods for new cooperation, jointly strengthen people to people bond and jointly advance regional integration with an ultimate mission of building a community with a shared future for all mankind.
JANG Hasung，South Korean Ambassador to China, and YOKOI Yutaka, Japanese Ambassador to China also delivered the congratulatory remarks. Both emphasized that as three important economics and neighbors to each other, China, Japan and ROK would greatly contribute to the peace and stability in the region by strengthening cooperation. In addition, ZHAO Qizheng，Former Minister of the State Council Information Office of China，CHUNG Sye-kyun，Member and Former Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, and KAWAMURA Takeo, Member of the House of Representatives, Former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology delivered keynote speeches.
This forum revisited the meaning and outcome of trilateral cooperation in the past two decades through the 3 sub-sessions of “Reshaping Vision for Trilateral Cooperation: Strengthening Interconnectivity for Future-oriented Partnership”, “New Model for Trilateral Economic Cooperation – Shaping Trilateral Common Modality” and “Creating Synergy between Culture, Sports, and Tourism”. Renowned moderators and speakers from the three countries and ASEAN shared their experience and wisdom with the participants and had constructive discussion with each other.
Since 2011, the IFTC is one of the brand projects of the TCS to raise the public awareness of the trilateral cooperation, as well as to provide in-depth policy references on future trends of the trilateral cooperation to the three governments. The Forum was sponsored by the prominent media of the three countries –People’s Daily, Chosun Ilbo and Asahi Shimbun.
