Ｓｅｃｏｎｄ Ｍｅｅｔｉｎｇ ｏｆ Ｃｈｉｎａ－Ｊａｐａｎ－Ｋｏｒｅａ Ｃｕｌｔｕｒａｌ Ｅｘｃｈａｎｇｅ Ｆｏｒｕｍ Ｈｅｌｄ ｉｎ Ｂｅｉｊｉｎｇ

The Second Meeting of the China-Japan-Korea （ROK） Cultural Exchange Forum was held in Beijing on December 19， 2006. Chinese representatives Liu Deyou， Wang Yunze and Jing Dunquan， Japanese representative and president of the Japan-China Friendship Association Ikuo Hirayama， and ROK representative and professor of Hanyang University Kim Yong-woon， among others， attended the meeting.

With the aim to jointly sponsor varied cultural exchanges to enhance mutual understanding and friendship among their people， especially among the youth， the people-to-people friendship organizations of China， Japan and the Republic of Korea set up the China-Japan-Korea Cultural Exchange Forum which convened its first meeting in Seoul in December 2005. The present meeting reviewed the exchanges carried out in various fields by the three sides in the past year， had warm discussions on how to further mobilize social and nongovernmental forces to conduct rich and colourful exchanges in all fields to promote the relations of good-neighbourliness， friendship and cooperation among the three countries and agreed on the exchange programme of 2007.

In his speech on behalf of the Chinese side， Liu Deyou said， the China-Japan-Korea Cultural Exchange Forum was founded on the initiative of personages of insight of the three countries and with the support of their governments. Over the past year since its inception， rich and colourful activities have been carried out， which have contributed to increasing the exchanges and mutual understanding among the youth of the three countries. Being close neighbours， the friendly contact among China， Japan and the Republic of Korea dates back to over 2，000 years. The three countries share the same cultural origin which has facilitated mutual understanding and friendship among their people， who have made monumental contributions to the development of oriental civilization. As countries having great influence in the world， especially in the affairs of Asia， it is of great significance to the maintenance of peace in East Asia and the world at large that China， Japan and the ROK develop good-neighbourly and mutually-beneficial cooperative relations.

Wang Yunze and Jing Dunquan， Chinese representatives and vice presidents of the CPAFFC， spoke respectively on the China-ROK and the China-Japan relations and briefed the participants on the various large-scale bilateral activities that would be held in 2007 to mark the 15th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the ROK and for the China-ROK Exchange Year， and to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan and for China-Japan Cultural and Sports Exchange Year. They expressed the hope that these activities would greatly boost bilateral relations， increase the friendly feelings between the peoples and contribute to peace and development of Northeast Asia.

Representatives of the three countries expressed at the meeting that 2007 is a very important year for both Sino-Japanese and Sino-Korean relations. The three sides should cooperate more closely in carrying out various exchanges. They stressed， though the three countries have the same cultural origin， they not only have common ground， but also differences. Therefore， exchanges are needed to bridge over the differences and promote development. The three countries should conduct cultural exchanges in accordance with their national conditions. At the same time， they should draw lessons from history to avoid conflicts in their pursuit of new civilization. They said， cultural exchange is spiritual contact between people. It can help improve the political relations. The improvement of political relations will in turn provide good conditions for cultural exchange.

The representatives of the three countries also warmly discussed future exchanges in a variety of areas including football， weiqi (go)， music， dance， fine arts， restoration and preservation of cultural relics， study tours， etc.. They aired their views freely and reached consensus on many points. The three sides agreed that the third meeting of the Forum would be held in Tokyo in October 2007.