ASEAN, ROK: Strong Commitment to Further Strengthening Partnership

During the visit, SG Minh paid a courtesy call to the President of the ROK, Park Geun-hye. He held meetings with the Acting Minister, First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cho Tae-yong; Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, Yoon Sang-jick; Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Kim Jong-deok; and Minister of Korea Forest Service, Dr. Shin Won-sup. He also met with other high-ranking officials, including the Secretary-Generals of the ASEAN-Korea Centre, the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat, and ASEAN Seoul Committee (ASC).

 

SG Minh and high-ranking officials of the ROK discussed a wide range of issues pertaining to ASEAN-ROK relations, and exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest and concern. They expressed satisfaction with the strong development of the ASEAN-ROK relations over the past years in a wide range of areas of political-security, economic, socio-cultural and development cooperation, serving the mutual benefits of both sides and contributing to regional peace, stability and prosperity. They also acknowledged that there is more vast potential on both sides to be tapped to further enhance and strengthen the partnership and cooperation.

 

The ROK reaffirmed their strong commitment to further strengthening the partnership with ASEAN, particularly with the prospect of realising the ASEAN Community by 2015 and the ASEAN Community’s Post-2015 Vision. The ROK attached great importance to the ASEAN-ROK Commemorative Summit which will be held on 11-12 December in Busan, ROK.

 

 The ROK reaffirmed its continued support for ASEAN’s Community building process, and ASEAN’s central role in regional mechanisms. They expressed continued support for ASEAN’s efforts in narrowing development gaps and regional integration, particularly through enhancing regional connectivity and within the Mekong-ROK cooperation framework. Both sides expressed satisfaction with the progress in the implementation of the ASEAN-ROK Plan of Action 2011-2015 and committed to working closely together toward a new plan of action which would reflect the comprehensive nature of the ASEAN-ROK partnership.

 

The ROK officials highlighted a number of fields where ASEAN and the ROK should further enhance cooperation. They stressed the need to further strengthen trade and investment relations with ASEAN, particularly through further liberalizing ASEAN-Korea trade. The ROK also expressed keen interest to promote forestry cooperation with ASEAN, particularly through the framework of the ASEAN-Korea Forestry Cooperation (AFoCo) Agreement which was recently extended for another two-year term. Both sides looked forward to further promoting cultural cooperation through cultural and people-to-people exchanges to enhance mutual understanding and friendship among the peoples of ASEAN and Korea.