S. Korea vows stronger partnerships with ASEAN in foreign ministerial talks

PHNOM PENH, Aug. 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will strengthen "strategic dialogue" with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on regional challenges, Seoul's top diplomat said Thursday during a group meeting in Phnom Penh with his counterparts from the members of the key regional bloc. "Our partnerships (with ASEAN) will focus on strengthening strategic relations in the economic field and beyond," Park Jin, the first foreign minister of the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, stressed during the ASEAN-South Korea Ministerial Meeting. The annual session has been held every year since 1997. Park was briefing the ASEAN members, except for Myanmar, on the Yoon government's regional policy less than three months after it replaced the Moon Jae-in administration that campaigned for the New Southern Policy intended to bolster Seoul's strategic ties with the ASEAN and India. Myanmar is ruled by a military regime and was absent from this year's event. The minister pointed out Seoul's stated plan to play a more proactive role in promoting freedom, peace and prosperity worldwide as a "global pivotal nation." "In that regard, the ASEAN, which is a core part of the Indo-Pacific region, will naturally become the center of South Korea's new initiative," he said. For the ASEAN, he added, South Korea is a."trustworthy and reliable partner." Park also explained the conservative Yoon administration's approach towards North Korea and requested ASEAN members' support for efforts to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and resolve the nuclear problem. He is scheduled to attend an enlarged ASEAN Plus Three meeting also involving the Chinese and Japanese foreign ministers to be held in the Cambodian capital later in the day. It would mark the first in-person trilateral foreign ministerial talks in three years. The ASEAN-hosted meetings were held virtually in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ejkim@yna.co.kr (END)