May 11, 2018, Seoul, R. Korea: NOWPAP Coordinator attended the 2018 International Forum for the Trilateral Cooperation (IFTC) “The Opening of a New Chapter for Trilateral Cooperation – The Past 10 years, the Coming 10 Years” held in Tokyo on April 18th, 2018. The forum brought together around 30 high-profile government officials and prominent scholars to share their insights along with the forum theme and attracted more than 300 participants from three governments, academia, media, business sectors and diplomatic community. As a follow up to the meeting, NOWPAP Coordinator had a working lunch with Ms. JANG EunYoung, the Director of Economic Affairs of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat and her colleagues on May 11th, 2018 in Seoul, R. Korea. The Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS) is an international organization established with a vision to promote peace, stability and common prosperity of the East Asian Region. Pursuant to the Agreement on the Establishment of the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS) signed and ratified by the three governments of the People’s Republic of China (China), the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Japan, the TCS was officially inaugurated in Seoul in September 2011. Among main function of the TCS is (i) providing support for trilateral consultative mechanisms; (ii) exploring and facilitating cooperative projects; (iii) communicating and coordinating with other international organizations and stakeholders, and (iv) generating databases, research and publications. Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting (TEMM) is one of the longest-living and well-established mechanisms among all the current 21 ministerial-level consultative mechanisms. TEMM is one of the most important mechanisms that the TCS supports. By providing administrative and technical support to the meetings, following up to conduct projects assigned at TEMM, and exploring and implementing cooperative projects under the 9 priorities, the TCS is paving its way to make meaningful and substantial contribution to the TEMM mechanism. NOWPAP is cooperating with TEMM Group on marine litter. During the lunch, two sides exchanged the information about the ongoing activities of the two organizations and explored potential areas for cooperation. NOWPAP RCU will continue exploring how two institutions could support each other mandates, particularly those related to marine environmental protection and the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 14.
