FEALAC Forum
The Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) is an inter-regional multilateral forum launched in 1999 with the aim to promote better understanding, political and economic dialogue and cooperation in all areas so as to achieve more effective and fruitful relations and closer cooperation between the two regions.

It is currently made up of 36 member countries from East Asia and Latin America.
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FEALAC is a unique regular official platform for dialogue between the two regions.
It mainly consists of regular meetings held at three levels: the Foreign Ministers (FMM), the Senior Officials (SOM) and the Working-level Officials (WG).
The Coordination Meeting is also convened back to back with the Senior Officials’ Meeting and the Ministerial Meeting.

Background & History

East Asia and Latin America, both comprised mainly of developing countries, are economically dynamic and complementary to each other. With the global trend of regional cooperation, the need for intercontinental cooperation between East Asia and Latin America arose since there was no official cooperative mechanism bridging the two regions.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong suggested to the then President of Chile, Eduardo Frei, ways to increase cooperation between East Asia and Latin America during an official visit to Chile in September 1998. As a result, the ‘East Asia - Latin America Forum (EALAF)’ was officially launched at the first Senior Officials’ Meeting in Singapore in September 1999.
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1st Foreign
Ministers’
Meeting
29-30 March 2001 Santiago, Chile
At the 1st Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Santiago, Chile (2001), member countries who have agreed to change the name of the Forum from EALAF to FEALAC approved the “Framework Document” which states the Forum’s objectives, direction, and range of cooperation.
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2nd Foreign
Ministers’
Meeting
30-31 January 2004 Manila, Philippines
At the 2nd Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Manila, Philippines (2004), member countries adopted the “Manila Plan of Action” which includes detailed direction on how to increase bi-regional understanding and cooperation.
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3rd Foreign
Ministers’
Meeting
22-23 August 2007 Brasilia, Brazil
At the 3rd Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Brasilia, Brazil (2007), member countries adopted the 「Brasilia Ministerial Declaration and Programme of Action」 which states the need for cooperation on global issues such as climate change and the “Doha Development Agenda”, as well as strengthening cooperation within FEALAC in the areas of trade and investment and regional financial institutions.
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4th Foreign
Ministers’
Meeting
16-17 January 2010 Tokyo, Japan
At the 4th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Tokyo, Japan (2010), member countries adopted the 「Tokyo Declaration」 which emphasizes the need for bi-regional cooperation in the face of global crisis, and agreed to Korea’s establishment of the FEALAC Cyber Secretariat among other issues.
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5th Foreign
Ministers’
Meeting
25 August 2011 Buenos Aires, Argentina
At the 5th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Buenos Aires, Argentina (2011), member countries adopted the 「Buenos Aires Declaration」 which includes reform of the global governance mechanism, plans to strengthen cooperation between FEALAC and regional economic and financial institutions such as ECLAC, IDB, ADB, ESCAP among others, and establishment of the Vision Group whose function is to provide FEALAC’s mid to long-term goals and strategies for implementation.
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6th Foreign
Ministers’
Meeting
13-14 June 2013 Bali, Indonesia
At the 6th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Bali, Indonesia (2013), member countries adopted the 「Uluwatu Declaration」 which assented to the Vision Group recommendation which aims at evaluating FEALAC cooperation, and agreed to the necessity to enhance communication between FEALAC members through the utilization of the FEALAC Cyber Secretariat.
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7th Foreign
Ministers’
Meeting
21 August 2015 San Jose, Costa Rica
At the 7th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in San Jose, Costa Rica (2015), member countries adopted the 「Declaration of San Jose」 which emphasized the need of a strategic alliance among FEALAC member countries, international organizations and financial institutions of both regions, and adopted the ‘Guideline for FEALAC Working Process’ to improve FEALAC work process and strengthen the utilization of the Cyber Secretariat.
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8th Foreign
Ministers’
Meeting
31 August 2017 Busan, Korea
At the 8th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Busan, Korea (2017), member countries adopted the 「Busan Declaration」 which endorsed “New FEALAC Action Plan”, “FEALAC Troika Modalities”, and “FEALAC Fund” among others to strengthen FEALAC process, and underscored the importance of FEALAC-wide projects to promote inter-regional dialogue and understanding.
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9th Foreign
Ministers’
Meeting
9 November 2019 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
At the 9th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (2019), member countries adopted the 「Santo Domingo Declaration」. In celebration of the FEALAC's 20th anniversary, member states expressed commitment to further strengthen FEALAC's working mechanisms and increase its visibility, by discussing and reaching agreement on various important points raised in previous meetings, such as the possibility of a FEALAC Special Commemorative Summit, adoption of the Regional Coordinators' Rotation system when deemed necessary, and the incorporation of 'Climate Change' into the 'Socio-Political Cooperation, Sustainable Development Working Group,' renaming it 'Socio-Political Cooperation, Sustainable Development, Climate Change Working Group'.

Quick Facts

ESTABLISHMENT 1999
FEALAC celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2019.
MEMBERSHIP 36
FEALAC has 16 East Asian and 20 Latin American member countries.
FUND PROJECTS 2
FEALAC implements two FEALAC-Wide Projects under the FEALAC Fund.
FEALAC PROJECTS 462
FEALAC member countries have implemented 462 national and regional projects from 1999 to 2019.

Objectives

The key objectives of FEALAC are:
  • To increase mutual understanding, trust, political dialogue, and friendly cooperation among member states with a view to enriching and sharing experiences and developing new partnerships;
  • To tap the potential of multidisciplinary cooperation, inter alia, in economy, trade, investment, finance, science and technology, environment protection, culture, sport, tourism and people-to-people exchanges; and
  • To expand common ground on important international political and economic issues with a view to working together in different international fora in order to safeguard common interests.

Principles

FEALAC should be forward looking and future oriented. It will be voluntary, informal and flexible in its working procedures. It will conduct itself in accordance with basic principles of international law, in particular:
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respect for each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity
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non-interference in each other's internal affairs
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equality, mutual benefit, and the common goal of development
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respect for each other's unique culture and social values
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decision-making by consensus