The inaugural Japan Trilateral Forum, an initiative of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) and the Japanese Mission to the European Union, was held from 19-20 January, 2015, in Brussels.

The forum convened 60 leading experts from the U.S., EU, and Japanese policy, business, and media community including Fumio Kishida, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Japan; Sung Kim, U.S. Special Representative for North Korea policy and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Japan and Korea, U.S. State Department; and Alexander Vershbow, Deputy Secretary General, NATO. Foreign Minister Kishida delivered a public address on the morning of the 20th.

Watch Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida's keynote address here. 

Sessions at the inaugural Forum included:

• Prime Minister Abe’s Japan, the EU after the eurozone crisis, and the U.S. after the mid-terms- assessing the political context

• TTIP, TPP– priorities, competition, and shared goals in the emerging global trade order

• U.S. Policy in Northeast Asia: A conversation with special representative Sung Kim

• Security in the Asia-Pacific and European neighborhood–common challenges, mutual support?

• Stabilizing fragile states and regions – new prospects for cooperation

• The G7 and the G20, the World Bank and the AIIB, the dollar and the RMB – What to adapt to and what to defend in the global institutional order? 

• The Europe-Japan relationship and the alliances: How to strengthen trilateral cooperation, and its weakest leg, the Europe-Japan relationship? 

View the Storify here and the transcript of the speech here.

Listen to the Japan Trilateral Forum Brussels podcast that summarizes key points from the discussions.