On the afternoon of October 17, 2015, Mr. Seiji Maehara, Former President of the Democratic Party of Japan, Member of House of Representatives and Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan attended the second “North Pavilion Dialogue” held by the Institute of International and Strategic Studies (IISS), Peking University (PKU) on invitation and delivered a lecture on Safety and Security of the Asia Pacific Region and the Respective Roles of China and Japan. The speech was hosted by Prof. Yuan Ming, Assistant President of IISS, PKU. Nearly a hundred students of PKU and external experts and scholars attended the event.

Mr. Maehara pointed out in his lecture that China's rapid development has attracted worldwide attention and he himself had been very interested in Chinese issues from his school days. It is indispensable for China and Japan to develop constructive relations between them for the stability of East Asia, while avoiding misjudgment of each other’s strategic intent being the foundation to build this constructive relationship. China and Japan shall not only strengthen their bilateral relations, but also work together to promote the stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region. In his lecture, Mr. Maehara also introduced and explained related issues such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and Japan's new security bill. Combined with his rich cabinet experience, he looked forward to the future joint efforts of China and Japan in areas such as economy, environmental protection, dealing with declining birthrate and population aging and so on, further expanding cooperation and exchanges and deepening mutual relations.

This lecture is part of the series events of the second “North Pavilion Dialogue”, which is hosted by IISS, PUK every autumn and includes activities such as closed-door seminars, open forums, and a series of lectures, etc. This year, “North Pavilion Dialogue” is themed by the Asia-Pacific security architecture. Besides Mr. Maehara, there are many other eminent political figures and strategists from around the world attending the event as foreign guests, including Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia; Vladimir Lukin, Former Deputy Chairman of the Russian Duma; Shivshankar Menon, former National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister of India; Kim Sung-hwan, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Korea; George Yeo, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Singapore; Nabil Fahmy, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt; J. Stapleton Roy, former U.S. ambassador to China; Thierry de Montbrial, President of French Institute of International Relations, etc.

Mr. Seiji Maehara was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1962 and graduated from Faculty of Law, Kyoto University. Having been elected to the House of Representatives of Japan for eight times since 1993, he once served as Japan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, boasting an influential politician in Japan.