Alhaji M. Kamara, awoko.org
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As a way of ensuring regional peace, stability, cultural exchange and economic development within the North-Eastern Asia region, China, Japan and South Korea on Friday 29th April 2016 concluded the first Public Diplomacy and Cooperation Forum in Beijing.
The event attracted senior government officials, former and present Ambassadors, media experts, civil society activities from the three countries with the aim of harmonizing and sharing their experiences for the development of the region.
According to the Chairman of China Public Diplomacy Association, Amb Li Zhaoxing, the three countries account for one fourth of the world’s population and one fifth of the world’s total economy which place them in a very strategic position for Asian and the world development.
He explained that the aim of the forum is to see how best they can strengthen their cooperation in the area of culture, peace, economy as a way of complementing and support each other towards the development of their countries and people.
The Vice Minister at the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry, Zhang Yesui, maintained that China, Japan and Korea are geographical nations with similar cultures and over the years have been enjoying people to people cooperation, adding that the Trilateral has been playing vital role for them since 1999.
Zhang Yesui stated that they will continue their cooperation on energy and economy to sustain Asia development and commitment as they established public platform to promote public functions, explaining that they need to promote intellectual cooperation as a way of developing capacity building which would help them address issues properly.
Delivering the keynote address, the former Vice Chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, Xu Jialu, disclosed that the forum is a very good start for the development of the region and hope it will continue in good faith.
“Humanity is in an unpleasant era of crisis. We need to look at the present situation around the world,” he says, explaining that before the existence of human being there was nothing like flooding, earth quake, tsunami and volcano, but ‘all these are happening now as a result of human act’.
The former Vice Chairman maintained that conflicts, wars, terrorism are all caused by human being as each party has its own vision or reason for such act, adding that inequality in relation to race, gender around the world and even the environmental condition is becoming unfriendly due to human involvement.
These problems, he said, need urgent and collective attention by not only Asian countries but the world as a whole, stating that society has lost it balance as evident in the problems highlighted through human involvement.
He furthered that China, Japan and Korea lost most of their cultures during their transformation period to western ways of doing things, urging them to learn from their ancient culture and improve on their activities and also help find solution to the current challenges facing the world.
Speaking on the side of Korea, the former Premier of the Korea Republic, Goh Kun, urged the membership of the Forum to try their best in solving the regional conflict which if it fails will affect development greatly.
“Terrorism is on the increase around the world. Countries in East Asia need to work together to contain the actions of North Korea,” he recalled, disclosing that China-United States of America relations can go a long way in solving the problems in East Asia and that Trilateral forum countries need to enhance mutual trust among themselves if they want to succeed.
The issue of greenhouse gas was also discussed as the three countries were said to be the highest around the world, a situation that is affecting the lives of the people, according to him, urging the three countries to engage their people for better understanding of the issues affecting them.
Speaking on the issue of environmental protection, the former minister of Trade and Industry in Japan, Toshihiro Nikao, explained that they should continue to raise awareness among the children on disaster related event and should further pay great attention in protecting the environment.
“Japan will continue to invite scholars from around the world to see how best we can tackle environmental problems. This year we will invite middle school pupils to a forum on environmental issue,” he promised.
Friday May 06, 2016
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