Text Fwd: [Korea MND News] Military chiefs in Asia-Pacific agreed to secure peace [?] 아태 국방장관 모임 결과 브리핑

ROK, Ministry of National Defense News No. 664
Military chiefs in Asia-Pacific agreed to secure peace
Oct. 25, 2010 (Uploaded on Nov. 1, 2010)

The annual 13th Chiefs of Defense meeting ended on Oct. 22 after top military commanders in 26 difference countries in Asia-Pacific region formed a consensus of importance of securing regional peace and stability.

"Participants have agreed that each should share the responsibility to maintain peace and stability in the [Asia-Pacific] region," said Gen. Han Min-koo, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea, during a joint press briefing took place at Grand Hyatt Seoul Hotel in central Seoul. "They also agreed to take part in making mutual-assistance structure and strengthening military ties to contribute in maintaining regional stability and world peace."

Han added that commanders consented on a measure of widening the operation of Peace Operation Center in each country for successful international peacekeeping activities.
"In addition, we gathered consensus on developing and supplementing training system of Multinational Planning Argumentation Team organized to deal with international natural disasters," Han said.

The South Korean top military chief said that participants discussed about maritime security issue in the region and agreed that reinforcing military drills for anti-terrorism, search and rescue and ship escort is needed.

During the event, many issues were discussed in bilateral and multilateral talks among commanders.

"In a three-way talks between South Korea, the United States and Japan, each representative reaffirmed common position on North Korea's nuclear and missile threats as well as its involvement on the Cheonan sinking," said a defense official under the JCS. "They agreed on necessity of close mutual-assistance related to the North's threat and military ties between three countries."

Many assess the event as the largest multinational military diplomatic forum in the region where top and senior military commanders from 26 different countries in the region, including South Korea, U.S., Japan, Russia and India, took part in.

Also many praised the event as a good opportunity to show the status of South Korea's development to top commanders ahead of G20 Summit in Seoul scheduled for two days from Nov. 11.

Seoul took advantage of the event to explain about South Korea's green growth and military role to participants. It also discussed about establishing international research center and cooperative system for common development related to the green growth.