Meeting Report
Overview
All six member countries sent participants to the 19th plenary meeting of NEACD in Beijing. Despite the uncertainties, bilateral tensions, and obstacles that the official Six Party Talks process faced at the time, the NEACD meeting was noticeable for the positive spirit and candor of the discussions that took place on a wide range of topics. On nuclear verification, which has been a major stumbling block, there were few sharp exchanges between the North Koreans, Americans, or any of the other parties. This was in sharp contrast to the rancor that was appearing in the media from some of the countries involved.
The NEACD meeting offered an opportunity for all the countries involved in the Six Party Talks to come together at the same time to exchange views informally and think about the next steps going forward on issues such as the Six Party Talks and the long-term future of the security architecture in Northeast Asia.
Another focus of this discussion on long-range security issues concerned major power relations, especially U.S.–China–Japan dynamics. One of the most noteworthy themes was criticism of Japan’s lack of support for multilateralism, including for the Six Party Talks.
A session was devoted to likely U.S. policy under the Obama administration, although discussion was speculative and general as the election results were still fresh. But U.S. participants did point out that the incoming Obama administration was unlikely to give the Six Party Talks process much high-level attention when it took office because no new government wants to expend political capital on matters that have a low likelihood of success.
When asked whether NEACD was still useful, there was strong endorsement from participants from all the countries that NEACD continues to offer a unique Track 1.5 role. Many of the government officials that attended in their non-official capacity remarked that they benefited from the freewheeling and open discussion that defines the NEACD dialogue process. So the NEACD model continues to be relevant, especially so in the current period of uncertainty because of leadership changes, the global financial crisis, and domestic drivers.
Background
Meeting annually, NEACD provides a "track II," or
unofficial, forum where foreign and defense ministry policy-level officials,
military
officers,
and academics from China, Russia, North and South Korea, Japan, and the United
States are able to meet and frankly discuss regional security issues. Founded
in 1993, NEACD is considered the leading track II forum in Northeast Asia.
At present there is no official "track I" multilateral process in
Northeast Asia. The next NEACD and the Defense Information Sharing
Study Project will convene in November 2009.
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