Defense officials and private security experts from 17 countries and international bodies will gather in Seoul on Wednesday for a three-day dialogue.

Under the theme of cooperation for security and peace, more than 100 participants will discuss concerted efforts to cope with common security challenges in the Asia-Pacific region and threats to cyberspace security. They will also exchange views on ways to improve the efficiency of defense administration.

The inaugural conference of the Seoul Defense Dialogue marks the first bid by the South Korean government to build its own framework for multilateral cooperation in enhancing regional security environment and military confidence.

It is an encouraging start that all the 15 nations invited by Seoul have agreed to join the dialogue, with the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization also hoping to attend it.

The SDD, in which participating states are to be represented by vice-ministerial level defense officials, is added to a set of multilateral security consultative bodies in Asia and the Pacific including the ASEAN Regional Forum launched in 1994 and the Jakarta International Defense Dialogue created in 2011. The activation of such multilateral mechanisms reflects an increasing need to cope with comprehensive and nonconventional security threats that individual countries find it hard to handle on its own.

The launch of the Seoul dialogue is still expected to add a new layer of discussion on multilateral cooperation in promoting regional stability and peace. Held at the crossroads of major powers, it will offer a stage for useful debate on keeping the security environment from deteriorating amid the escalating rivalry between the U.S. and China, territorial disputes involving Northeast Asian countries and a prolonged standoff over North Korea’s nuclear program.

It is anticipated that a wide range of policy approaches to regional security issues will be suggested and reviewed in the SDD, whose format will ensure active discussion among defense officials and private experts from Australia, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the U.S., the Philippines and Vietnam, as well as the EU and NATO.

A day after closing their debate, participants in the dialogue will see U.S. President Barack Obama make his first overseas trip since his re-election to three Southeast Asian nations, including Myanmar, in a move seen to reaffirm Washington’s pivot-to-Asia policy and discomfort Beijing.

The continued hosting of the annual dialogue will serve to enhance Seoul’s role in boosting regional security cooperation. South Korea needs to be more actively engaged in multilateral mechanism to secure more leeway in mounting confrontation between neighboring powers and foster a favorable environment for bringing peace to the peninsula and eventually achieving the unification of the two Koreas.

Seoul officials should make persistent efforts to put the SDD on track toward becoming a major multilateral security forum that could serve as a cornerstone for stability and peace in Northeast Asia and beyond. We hope its inaugural meeting will successfully take the first step toward that goal.