Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan attended the 4th FEALAC (Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Tokyo, Japan, on January 16-17.

FEALAC, a multilateral, government-level consultative framework established in 1999 to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between East Asia and South and Central America, is comprised of a total 34 member states; 16 East Asian and 18 Latin American, including its newest member Mongolia.

The 34 member states present at the meeting exchanged views on future development measures for FEALAC, environment and sustainable development, the global economic and financial crisis, and social integration, followed by the adoption of the Tokyo Declaration reflecting the outcome of the Meeting and the members’ positions on the nuclear issue, UN reform, human rights, contagious diseases and other global issues.

Particularly, with regard to the North Korean nuclear issue, the Tokyo Declaration      reflects the FEALAC members’ shared recognition that it is important to thoroughly implement the September 19 Joint Statement through an early resumption of the Six-party Talks, expressing FEALAC members’ commitment to North Korea’s denuclearization.

With respect to future development measures for FEALAC, Korea proposed establishing and managing a cyber secretariat to vitalize on-line communication within FEALAC and overcome the geographical distance between East Asia and Latin America, securing unanimous support from the FEALAC members.

Minister Yu Myung-hwan elaborated that the 5th G20 Summit will be held in Korea this November to seek ways for sustainable and balanced growth of the global economy. Touching upon Korea’s low-carbon, green-growth policy, he announced Korea’s intention to bid for the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP18) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change slated for 2012 and asked the support of FEALAC members.

Korea, the next co-chair of the Working Group on Politics, Culture and Education along with Colombia, explained its plan to host the 2nd Ecotourism Conference, FEALAC’s cooperative project for this year, and the FEALAC Expert Meeting on Current E-learning-related Issues, winning active support from the participants.

Minister Yu Myung-hwan met with his counterparts from Japan, China and Panama for discussions on key bilateral issues on the sidelines of the FEALAC Meeting.