Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue 3

In the first meeting of its kind, military officials from participating countries met in Moscow in April to discuss security issues in a multilateral setting. Participants presented individual country perspectives by government and military officials regarding security developments in Northeast Asia. Continuing the Dialogue tradition of examining a different area of potential economic cooperation at each meeting, experts from the UC Davis Department of Agricultural Economics discussed the cooperative possibilities generated by the role of agriculture production and trade in the region.

The meeting also included preliminary discussions of mutual reassurance measures (similar to confidence-building measures in other regions) and normative, declaratory principles governing state-to-state relations. Participants decided to establish two study projects to examine these subjects more deeply, each comprising one member from each of the participating countries, aimed at preparing a set of options in each area to present to Dialogue members for future discussion.

In a sign of firm commitment to the NEACD, the Chinese delegation invited the other participants to Beijing, China, for the next plenary session 8–10 January 1996. Beijing will also be the site for the study project on principles, while the mutual reassurance measures study project will be held in Tokyo, Japan. All of the Dialogue members are hopeful that North Korean representatives, who participated in the founding meeting of NEACD but have been absent since then, will attend the Beijing session.

The NEACD is designed to enhance mutual confidence and cooperation among countries in Northeast Asia. Participants include representatives from South Korea, North Korea, Russia, China, Japan, and the United States, who rotate as national hosts with IGCC acting as Secretariat.