1. The Foreign Ministry, together with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), will host the third Northeast Asia Energy Security Forum in Seoul on December 17.

◦ The event themed “Sustainable Energy, Energy Interconnection and Regional Energy Cooperation” will be a 1.5-track forum, bringing together energy experts from the industry as well as public and academic sectors of Northeast Asian countries and beyond, including not only the Republic of Korea, Japan, China, the US, Russia and Mongolia but also the EU and ASEAN.

2. The forum will start with opening remarks by Director-General for Climate Change, Energy and Environmental Affairs Lee Seong-ho of the ROK Foreign Ministry and Director Kilaparti Ramakrishna of the UNESCAP East and North-east Asia Office. There will be two sessions in the morning on “Energy Security in Northeast Asia in a New Era” and “Regional Energy Interconnection and Energy Security.”

◦ The first session will cover diverse variables, including international politics, geopolitics and environment, that have lately been exerting impact on the Northeast Asian energy market; as well as the present and future of the energy security situation in the region.

◦ The second session will shed light on the initiative for energy interconnection in Northeast Asia, which is designed to bolster the energy security in the region.

3. In the afternoon session on “Current Status and Future of Supergrid in Northeast Asia,” the participants will discuss in detail and depth the feasibility of electricity networks interconnection project in Northeast Asia from various aspects, including politics, economy and technology. The project has lately been under detailed research as an initiative for regional energy interconnection.

◦ In the fourth and last session on “Enhancing Regional Energy Cooperation in Northeast Asia,” the participants will review relevant cooperation experiences of Europe and ASEAN, which Northeast Asia may refer to in stepping up energy cooperation in the region. The session will also cover ways to seek cooperation on liquefied natural gas (LNG) as agreed at the ROK-Japan-China trilateral summit talks in early November.

4. Energy security is one of the main areas, where the ROK is seeking cooperation under its Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative. The ROK Foreign Ministry has held the “Northeast Asia Energy Security Forum” since 2013 to seek ways to enhance cooperation on energy security in the region. The Ministry expects that the forum, which marks the third of its kind in 2015, will establish itself as an annual regional meeting that is attended by relevant countries in the region and international organizations.

◦ Going forward, the ROK will seek participation by a larger number of government officials of relevant countries in the region in an effort to develop the forum into a consultative mechanism for cooperation on energy security in Northeast Asia.


* unofficial translation