In his opening remarks, Secretary General of NEAR Kim Ok-chae emphasised that regional governments are participating strongly in many international exchange activities, contributing to maintaining stability and peace in the region.
The plenary meeting to celebrate the 25th founding anniversary of NEAR will open up a new chapter for the next 25 years, and NEAR will be seen as an “United Nations (UN)” of North East Asia regional governments, he said.
Addressing the event, former Secretary-General of the UN Ban Ki-moon emphasised that all NEAR member governments should strengthen solidarity to expand its influence over the region in the future.
He expressed his belief that NEAR will play an important role similar to the UN for the relations of regional governments in North East Asia.
Participants focused their discussion on regional issues of common concern such as non-traditional security threats, disease prevention and control, environmental protection; fishery development, culture-education, commerce, and human resources development.
They elected a new President of NEAR, and considered admitting Liaoning province of China as a member.
Established in 1996, NEAR groups 78 member regional governments of Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Mongolia and Russia.
At the annual meeting in Russia on 2016, NEAR agreed to expand membership for ASEAN countries through the programme "associate member” and selected HCM City as the first locality to participate in the programme. HCM City officially became an associate member of NEAR in 2018.
HCM City’s participation at the 13th plenary meeting of NEAR is expected to contribute to promoting exchange and cooperation between the Vietnamese city with other regional governments, and introducing its image and tourism potential.
