Trilateral youth summit opens in Busan

Dozens of students gathered in Busan to participate in the first US-ROK-Japan Trilateral Global Leadership Youth Summit that kicked off Thursday, as the program aims to nurture potential leaders from three countries.

Under the agenda of trilateral security, economic and technological cooperation, Indo-Pacific strategy and expanded civilian exchanges, 50 youths -- 15 each from the US, Korea and Japan, and five from Indo-Pacific island countries -- gathered at APEC House in Busan for a three-day summit, from Thursday to Saturday.

Through four preliminary video training sessions, the participants took online lectures and engaged in discussions on topics such as security and economy before the summit.

The young participants will now use that preliminary training to discuss concrete plans for international issues at the summit. In the process, they will acquire skills and knowledge needed in the actual diplomatic arena through dialog training with experts, a mock summit and a presentation competition, and cultivate their capabilities as international representatives, according to the Ministry of Education.

"When we come together to think from diverse angles and take practical action to address global issues, we can continue to build peace and prosperity in a globalized world based on the values of freedom and solidarity," Education Minister Lee Ju-ho said in his opening remarks.

The youth summit comes as President Yoon Suk Yeol, President Joe Biden, and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed to hold a youth summit this year in the historic trilateral summit at Camp David in August last year, the first-ever stand-alone summit of leaders from South Korea, the United States and Japan.

The youth summit aims to bring together emerging Korean, Japanese, and US young leaders to develop global leadership skills and share perspectives on global issues that affect the trilateral partnership, according to the summit's fact sheet.