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| Image: Flickr User - The White House |
By Heajin Kim
Can Park Geun-hye’s Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative (NAPCI) build trust in a tense region?
In contrast to Europe, Asian countries have struggled with what President Park Geun-hye calls the “Asian Paradox.” In other words, Asian countries have fallen short of political and security cooperation despite deep economic integration.
To overcome the paradox, Park proposed the Northeast Asia Peace and Cooperation Initiative(NAPCI) as she took office in 2013. Two years later, it is a good time to review how distinctive NAPCI is, why it has been successful, and what the road ahead will be if it wants to leave a lasting mark in the region. NAPCI’s distinctive characteristics help it attract substantial regional and global interest, but it undoubtedly faces challenges down the road.
NAPCI is part of Park’s larger trustpolitik policy of replacing conflict and discord in the region with dialogue and cooperation. By fostering an arena for dialogue and cooperation at multiple levels, NAPCI aspires to build trust in the region over the long term so that peace and prosperity can be sustained. As a multilateral institution, NAPCI has won the support and participation of major countries in the region, include the United States, Japan, China, Russia, and Mongolia. At present, North Korea is not participating, but by encouraging it to, NAPCI could eventually help defusing tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Moreover, NAPCI does not aim to replace existing multilateral international institutions, but rather looks for complementary and cooperative relations.
Read the full story at The Diplomat