Ministry of Foreign Affairs Proposes 'Joint Stockpiling of Supplies' to Northeast Asia Disease Control Cooperation Body

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on the 31st that it held the 2nd video conference of the 'Northeast Asia Quarantine and Health Cooperation Body' on the 30th and discussed future directions such as discovering cooperative projects.

The cooperation body is a regional cooperation initiative launched in December last year, led by Korea, to respond to transboundary health security issues including COVID-19.

The meeting was attended by foreign and health officials from the governments of six countries: Korea, the United States, China, Japan, Russia, and Mongolia, as well as representatives from embassies in Korea.

Japan stated that it will observe the progress of the cooperation body as an observer and consider participation.

The Korean government proposed reviewing candidate cooperative projects such as joint stockpiling of medical quarantine supplies and joint education and training of personnel responding to COVID-19.

The participants agreed to continue consultations on project selection and implementation plans.

In his welcoming remarks, Kim Geon, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, expressed hope for North Korea's future participation, stating that North Korea's involvement would open the way for cooperation with related countries in the region and contribute to peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.

On the same day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also participated in a Sherpa video conference preparing for the upcoming Group of Seven (G7) summit to be held in the United Kingdom in June.

Korea is scheduled to attend the summit as an invited country.

The participants discussed cooperation among democratic countries, joint responses to climate change, and health sector cooperation centered on COVID-19 response.

Choi Kyung-rim, Korea's Sherpa for the G7 consultative body, representing the Korean government, stated that Korea plans to actively contribute to solving major international issues at this year's G7 summit and explained the government's health and climate change policies as a leading middle power.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.