On April 12, 2012, the meeting of national coordinators of the Network of East Asian Think-Tanks (NEAT) was held in Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying attended the opening ceremony and held talks with the participants. Nearly 50 people, including NEAT national coordinators of ASEAN and China, Japan and the ROK (10+3), officials of the embassies in China of part of the 10+3 countries and Chinese scholars attended the event.

Asia has maintained a strong momentum of development and deep regional cooperation in recent years and drawn increasing attention of the outside world, of which Asian countries and people should be proud, said Fu. Meanwhile, we should be fully aware of the complex and profound changes taking place in the world and regional situation and positively guide the outside world to ensure that Asia keeps the trends of peace and development. She spoke highly of the achievements NEAT had made over the years. She hopes the meeting makes full discussions on the future development direction of Asia, especially East Asia and contributes more to promoting regional development, stability and prosperity. She also exchanged in-depth views with the participants on the Korean Peninsula situation, South China Sea, China-Myanmar relations, Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement and other issues.

The participants thanked Fu for taking time off her busy schedule to attend the meeting. It shows that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs attaches importance to NEAT. Such sincere and in-depth exchanges deepened their understanding of Chinese diplomacy, especially diplomacy with neighboring countries.

Established in 2003, NEAT is a key track-two cooperation mechanism under the framework of 10+3. Its purpose is to gather together the think-tanks of East Asian countries to strengthen academic research and exchanges and provide intellectual support for East Asian cooperation. China holds the presidency of NEAT this year. As the Chinese coordinator, China Foreign Affairs University will host a series of meetings. This meeting of national coordinators is one of them.