TCS Secretary-General LEE Jong-heon attended the 75th Session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) which was held on May 27-31, 2019 at the United Nation Conference Center in Bangkok, Thailand. This year, the Session was held under the theme of ‘Empowering people and ensuring inclusiveness and equality’ and SG LEE was invited as one of representatives of sub-regional organizations to speak about China-Japan-Korea’s perspectives on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
On May 29, SG LEE met ESCAP Deputy Executive Secretary Mr. Kaveh Zahedi and the Head of ESCAP East and Northeast Asia Sub-regional Office Dr. Ganbold Baasanjav to discuss common priority issues of China, Japan and the ROK and possible cooperation between the TCS and the ESCAP on those priority issues. Mr. Zahedi explained that ESCAP is mandated to support sub-regional organizations by providing platforms to identify common regional issues and to realize practical actions. SG LEE emphasized the importance and potential of the trilateral cooperation in Asia Pacific region. They agreed to continue to closely communicate with each other for the future cooperation.
On May 30, SG LEE participated in the high-level sub-regional dialogue on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a panelist. SG LEE shared his thoughts and perspectives with regard to strategic importance of interconnectivity within the region and between the regions. He emphasized that more frequent and candid communication is the most important and effective vehicle to harmonize and reconcile existing different perspectives and find best solutions. He added that ESCAP needs to continue to organize this kind of sub-regional dialogues to provide enough opportunity for sub-regional organizations to discuss the desirable future vision of the Asia Pacific region.
The whole dialogue can be seen on youtube 75th Commission: Plenary -Agenda Item 5 (Click here).
