The Greater Tumen Initiative (GTI), an cooperation program involving four northeast Asian countries, may be raised to an intergovernmental organization to increase relations and dialogues among the regional members, an official has announced, on Dec 14.

Li Tie, head of China Tumen River Cooperation, a Chinese think tank concerned with northeast Asia development, says that GTI will have regular meetings of related officials to discuss security matters in the region at an annual conference in Changchun, the capital of Jilin province, which is part of the region.

The GTI, which started as the Tumen River Area Development Programme in 1995, has four members - China, Mongolia, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation and has the support of the United Nations Development Programme.

The purpose of the conference is to promote international cooperation in the Tumen River region, which forms the boundary between China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and help incorporate Jilin's socioeconomic development with the overall initiative.