S. Korea, U.S. to hold meetings on environmental cooperation

South Korea and the United States are set to hold a set of meetings in Seoul later this week to discuss environmental cooperation, Seoul's foreign ministry said Monday. Officials from the two countries will convene meetings of the Environmental Affairs Council (EAC) and Environmental Cooperation Commission (ECC), two key bodies established to enhance bilateral environmental collaborations, the ministry said. The meetings will take place Thursday. The EAC was established under the environmental chapter of the South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which came into effect in 2012, while the ECC is anchored in the Environmental Cooperation Agreement signed in January 2012. At the EAC meeting, participants will assess the status of existing policies and explore opportunities for collaboration in multilateral forums, such as the World Trade Organization and the Group of 20 (G20) major economies. During the ECC meeting, both sides are expected to discuss cooperation on various environmental issues, review the p rogress of major ongoing cooperative projects and exchange ideas on new initiatives. It will be the first time in five years that the meetings are held, following the last session in Washington, D.C., in 2019. Source: Yonhap News Agency