1. Deputy Minister for Political Affairs Chung Byung-won held a luncheon meeting on March 14 (Thursday) with the delegation of the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) led by its President Chen Bo, who visited Korea to attend the 31st IFANS-CIIS Conference*.

 * The Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS) and CIIS have held regular conferences since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Korea and China in 1992.

※ CIIS is a think tank of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China that offers policy recommendations on diplomatic issues and conducts academic exchanges with research institutions on international affairs in other countries.

2. Deputy Minister Chung appreciated the outcomes of the 31st IFANS-CIIS Conference, and emphasized that Korea and China should minimize the elements of potential conflict and focus more on mutual cooperation to accumulate substantive achievements in various fields such as economic and people-to-people exchanges. On that note, Deputy Minister Chung encouraged active exchanges between think tanks of the two countries.

3. Deputy Minister Chung and CIIS President Chen also had an in-depth discussion about regional and global affairs including Korean Peninsula issues.

4. CIIS President Chen expressed her commitment to activating and broadening exchanges between academic institutions of the two countries for continuous development of the Korea-China relations.