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ASEAN, South Korea mark 30 years of amity
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High hopes: South Korean President Moon Jae-in (left), Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (center) and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha pose for a group photo before the start of the ASEAN-South Korea summit on the sidelines of the 33rd ASEAN summit in Singapore on Nov. 14, 2018. (AFP/Roslan Rahman)
H
istoric events with South Korea are to take place November. It will host the third ASEAN-Korea Commemorative Summit and the first Korea-Mekong Summit in Busan, South Korea from Nov. 25 to 27.
Busan is welcoming back ASEAN leaders after hosting the previous summit in 2014. Our southern port city of Busan is, indeed, ASEAN-friendly as people can indulge in diverse ASEAN cultures at the ASEAN Culture House. Busan, the sixth-largest port in the world, is also connected to seven major ASEAN cities by air.
Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don visited Jakarta a week ago and had a meaningful talk with ASEAN representatives. The city plans to establish the ASEAN Village to incubate promising artists and businesspeople in film, game and tourism industries to nurture their creativity. With its soft power, Busan is dreaming of a much closer partnership with ASEAN.
ASEAN has been shown a mixture of subtleness and friendliness. Among ASEAN members, they don’t strong-arm each other. For external relations, they never divide “we” and “others”. Instead, they leverage their geo-strategic value in bringing in whoever the parties are, as long as they are matching for regional peace and stability. These principles apply to ASEAN’s engagement on the Korean Peninsula.
ASEAN has engaged with both Koreas. Many of the ASEAN member states has embassies in Pyongyang. It was ASEAN that encouraged North Korea to join the ASEAN Regional Forum in 2000. Recently, Singapore and Hanoi were chosen to host the historic United States-North Korea summits in 2018 and 2019.
I believe ASEAN’s goodwill to support sustainable peace and stability on our peninsula has impressed the US and North Korea. In the upcoming Commemorative Summit, South Korea expects ASEAN’s meaningful message in this regard.
Economy is equally as important. ASEAN, the sixth-largest economy in the world, is the second-largest trading partner of South Korea, whereas it is the fifth-largest trading partner to ASEAN. In 2017, two-way trade volume stood at US$150 billion.
