Ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju, foreign and trade Ministers from the 21 member economies gathered to begin a final review of the agenda. With two days left until the summit opens, coordination of a joint statement among the members has moved into full swing.
The APEC joint meeting of foreign and trade Ministers (AMM) will be held in Gyeongju for two days starting on the 29th. The Ministers will begin with a dinner that afternoon, then hold the plenary session on the 30th to conduct a final review of the draft "Gyeongju Declaration," which will be adopted at the summit.
Until the day before, the Concluding Senior Officials' Meeting (CSOM), which involves high-level working-level officials, was underway. At the ministerial meeting, policy coordination among the member economies will be finalized based on these results.
The plenary consists of two sessions. Session 1 will be chaired by Minister Cho Hyun of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and will discuss "responses to regional challenges and pathways to shared prosperity through digital cooperation." Session 2 will be chaired by Yeo Han-koo, head of the Office of Trade Negotiations at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and will focus on "strengthening regional supply chains and promoting trade using new technologies."
Separately from the summit joint statement, the foreign and trade Ministers are pursuing the adoption of an AMM joint statement. Negotiations on both the "Gyeongju Declaration" and the joint statement are proceeding in parallel.
Bilateral and minilateral meetings among the Ministers are also expected to be active during the conference. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi will visit Gyeongju to hold a trilateral foreign Ministers' meeting among the United States, Japan, and Korea with Minister Cho Hyun of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It comes one month after they met during the high-level week of the U.N. General Assembly last month.
At this U.S.-Japan-Korea meeting, they are expected to reaffirm denuclearization coordination shaken by North Korea's claim to be "recognized as a nuclear-armed state," while also discussing China policy and options for regional security cooperation.
An official at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, "At a time when leader-level meetings are difficult, a ministerial-level meeting will serve as an opportunity to demonstrate a will for practical cooperation," adding, "the Gyeongju Declaration and the joint statement will carry a message of solidarity among the member economies."