On September 9, RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned media, released the contents of a special interview with NEAR Secretary-General Lim Byung-jin. The interview took place during the 2024 Eastern Economic Forum held on September 4 at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok.
The following is the main points of the interview released on RIA Novosti.
▲ In April, Governor Alexey Tsydenov of the Republic of Buryatia officially proposed Buryatia as the 16th chair of NEAR, an international organization joined by 81 local governments from 6 countries—Russia, China, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Japan. Buryatia is very likely to be elected as the next chair.
▲ If Buryatia becomes the next NEAR chair, it will be able to play a key leadership role in achieving NEAR’s goals of mutual prosperity and regional peace through exchange and cooperation.
▲ Primorsky Region proposed that the NEAR Secretariat organize a separate NEAR event within the Eastern Economic Forum. The NEAR Secretariat will review the proposal seriously.
▲ NEAR is characterized by its unique membership, which includes nations from both the Asia Pacific and Eurasia. This enables the organization to play a role in promoting cooperation between the two regions, especially as they face the pressures of a potential New Cold War.
▲ To address recent geopolitical shifts in Northeast Asia and the whole world, NEAR is currently promoting the “NEAR+2” policy, which aims to include local governments from Central Asia and Southeast Asia as its associate members. If the NEAR platform expands in this direction, it will be able to maintain its functions despite the intensifying trends of a New Cold War.
Andrey Olfert, a reporter from Rossiya Segodnya, assessed that NEAR plays an important role in fostering cooperation among Northeast Asian local governments. He expressed optimism that NEAR will also be able to contribute to cooperation not only in Northeast Asia but also with Eurasia in the future.
Source: RIA Novosti
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