Others State Secretary of Switzerland H.E. ROSSIER Yves Paid a Courtesy Visit to the TCS 2014-12-02

State Secretary of Switzerland ROSSIER Yves visited the TCS office and met with Secretary-General IWATANI Shigeo on December 2, 2014. H.E. REDING Jörg Alois, Ambassador of Switzerland to the ROK and Deputy Secretary-General CHEN Feng also attended the meeting. 

SG IWATANI introduced the recent development of trilateral cooperation and the TCS’ efforts in facilitating track II dialogue on security issues. SG IWATANI also shared his idea about confidence building measures and regional security mechanism in Northeast Asia. He expressed his hope that the TCS can play some role in this regard, particularly by introducing the experience of Europe to this region. SG IWATANI proposed to organize another trilateral track II dialogue on the sideline of the OSCE-Asian Contact Group meeting which is to be held in Seoul in June, 2015. 

State Secretary ROSSIER agreed that it would be helpful to exchange experiences and lessons between Europe and Asia. The current situation in Northeast Asia seems to be more complicated and difficult than Europe and how much “European Recipes” can be applied in this region still need to be further studied. He emphasized the importance of addressing historical issues in confidence building among Northeast Asian countries. He appreciated SG IWATANI’s proposal and asked the Swiss Embassy to keep in touch with the TCS. 

Note: Switzerland is the current chair country of OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe).  

H.E. ROSSIER Yves (first from right) at the meeting 

Group Photo of the meeting participants