Others TCS Consultative Board paid courtesy call on Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan 2022.10.04
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On October 4, TCS Secretary-General Amb. OU Boqian and Deputy Secretaries-General BEK Bum-hym and SAKATA Natsuko (collectively the “Consultative Board”) paid a courtesy call on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and met with H.E. TAKEI Shunsuke, State Minister of Foreign Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. 

State Minister TAKEI welcomed TCS Consultative Board to Japan for its courtesy visit. He highly spoke of TCS proactively carrying out activities to build up public confidence in the Trilateral Cooperation through people-to-people exchange programs with focus on youths, promoting understanding on Trilateral Cooperation among the three countries through strengthening public relations for the future-oriented trilateral cooperation. The International Forum for Trilateral Cooperation (IFTC) 2022 held in June comprehensively covered various areas and frameworks of Trilateral Cooperation. He expected the future IFTC will further serve as a platform of the three countries for valuable policy recommendations. He believed the foundation of the confidence in the trilateral cooperation will be strengthened by continuing the people-to-people exchanges in the various levels and widely sharing the results of the exchanges with the public. He reassured that Japan would like to continue supporting TCS in this regard. He re-recognized the passion of TCS and its staff on Trilateral Cooperation as well as the important role of the TCS, believing that a sound and solid Trilateral Cooperation is crucial to peace and prosperity in the region and beyond. He looked forward to participating in future TCS events in coming months, including the launching event of Trilateral Youth Exchange Network (TYEN) to be scheduled in February. 

Secretary-General Amb. OU extended her gratitude to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan for its great support to the TCS. Noting the TCS Board took office in a critical time as this year marks the 50th anniversary for the Japan-China diplomatic relation, and the 30th anniversary for the China-ROK diplomatic relation, SG OU reassured the TCS’ commitment to further promoting the future-oriented Trilateral Cooperation through facilitating the governmental consultative meetings, strengthening TCS’ advisory role, and implementing more unique and value-adding programs, in particular youth programs. SG OU and DSG SAKATA emphasized TCS’ allocation of 72% of the budget for the TCS programs in order for the public to see that trilateral cooperation keeps its momentum in the midst of deteriorating mutual perception among the three countries. SG OU sought more advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the trilateral cooperation. 

▲Group photo with State Minister TAKEI Shunsuke

Followed by the meeting with State Minister TAKEI, the TCS Consultative Board paid a courtesy call to Mr. FUNAKOSHI Takehiro, Director-General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau and exchanged views on the progress and prospect of the trilateral cooperation. Director General FUNAKOSHI appreciated for TCS’ efforts for promoting trilateral cooperation, seeing practical cooperation will serve to ameliorate the tense around bilateral relations and more frequent face-to-face exchanges will improve trilateral cooperation. Echoing with DG FUNAKOSHI that both bi- and tri-lateral relations reciprocally affect each other, SG OU expected Japan, China, and ROK to see and use trilateral cooperation as an important alternative channel to reinvigorate the bilateral relations. 

▲Group photo of TCS Consultative Board with Director-General FUNAKOSHI

Following the meeting with Director-General FUNAKOSHI, TCS Consultative Board had an official talk with Mr. MIBAE Taisuke, Deputy Director-General of Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau. Deputy Director-General MIBAE underlined that “fairness, neutrality, equality, transparency, and accountability” are the key features that TCS needs for strengthening the importance of TCS and for tackling the deteriorating mutual perception among the three countries, and he regarded the Trilateral Statistics Hub (TSH) is a very meaningful example of strengthening practical and functional policy recommendation capacity of TCS. Furthermore, DDG MIBAE valued TCS’ involvement with a wide range of stakeholders from youths to business sectors, and from think-tanks to media as engaging diverse stakeholders is crucial for improving mutual public perception in order to influence the governments and politicians. 


►Group photo with Deputy Director-General