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| President Yoon Suk-yeol, left, will depart for Madrid, Spain, Monday, to attend the NATO summit, making his debut in multilateral diplomacy. He will also hold a trilateral meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, center, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Wednesday, on the sidelines of the NATO summit. Yonhap |
Korea-US-Japan summit to be held on Wednesday
By Kwon Mee-yoo
President Yoon Suk-yeol will take part in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit this week, making his debut in multilateral diplomacy, centering on defense and economics.
Yoon will depart Seoul for his first official overseas trip to Madrid, Spain, Monday, to take part in the NATO summit slated for June 29 to 30, and hold a flurry of bilateral talks with major heads of state during the summit. Yoon did not have any official schedule Sunday as he prepared for his first multilateral diplomatic engagement.
South Korea is a global partner of NATO and Yoon is going to be the first Korean president to attend a NATO summit. He is expected to discuss the strengthening of shared values based on democracy and constructing a comprehensive defense network as well as emerging security threats such as cyberattacks, climate change and aerospace.
Yoon will also hold a trilateral summit with the United States and Japan, Wednesday, to discuss cooperation on North Korea, for the first time in four years since the last such summit was held in September 2017.
However, there will be no one-on-one Korea-Japan summit. Yoon will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on other occasions, but there won't be bilateral talks, not even in the form of a pull-aside meeting, according to the presidential office.
As well, Korea will not have a quadrilateral meeting with the leaders of Japan, Australia and New Zealand, the three other Asia-Pacific partner countries also invited to the NATO summit. The proposed summit is unlikely to happen due to busy schedules, and the partner countries do not have specific agendas for a separate summit, the presidential office said.
Among the official sessions, Yoon is expected to give a speech during a joint session with NATO members and partner nations, emphasizing the need for the denuclearization of North Korea. According to the presidential office, Yoon expects the NATO summit to reaffirm strong international support for the complete denuclearization of North Korea.
Yoon will also show Korea's support for Ukraine, providing only non-lethal aid to the country suffering from Russian invasion.
Yoon will meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and attend a gala dinner hosted by King Felipe VI of Spain.
On the sidelines, he will also promote the export of Korea's technologies in nuclear reactors, semiconductors and renewable energy through bilateral meetings.
"Many heads of state from Europe and Asia are coming to the NATO summit and I could discuss various domestic and international issues as well as trade," Yoon said Friday.
The presidential office has been putting efforts into organizing bilateral summits for Yoon's three-day visit to Spain in addition to the official sessions.
He plans to hold meetings with major NATO countries, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Poland and Finland, to talk about the defense industries and renewable energy.
"Many NATO member states holds a key role in distributing state-of-the-art technologies and we hope to further promote Korea's interests through cooperation with those countries," an official of the presidential office said.
The official added that possible topics for bilateral summits include defense industry exports for Poland, cooperation in semiconductor manufacturing for the Netherlands, renewable energy with Denmark, electric vehicles with Canada and a nuclear plant contract with the Czech Republic.
First lady Kim Keon-hee will accompany Yoon and participate in programs for the spouses of heads of state.
