By Lee Chi-dong
BANGKOK, Nov 4 (NNN-YONHAP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in will participate in a string of regional summits here, hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), on Monday, in which he plans to seek more support for his country’s special summit with ASEAN late this month and the Korea peace process.
Moon will first join the 22nd ASEAN Plus Three (APT) summit, along with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.
He plans to lay out a vision for closer regional cooperation toward a “sustainable community” and express Seoul’s commitment to related contributions.
The APT summit was launched in December 1997 at the time of an Asia-wide financial crisis. The ASEAN members invited the Northeast Asian powers on the occasion of the 30th founding anniversary of ASEAN.
It came in response to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the European Union.
Moon will then have special lunch on “sustainable development,” along with the leaders of the other participating nations, as well as U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
In the afternoon, he is scheduled to attend the East Asian Summit (EAS) session involving the ASEAN members, South Korea, Japan, China, the United States, Russia, Australia, India, New Zealand. It was first held in 2005.
He is to request backing for his offer, made in his September United Nations speech, to turn the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into an international peace zone.
Moon will take part in a summit on the envisioned Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as well, in which 16 nations are involved except for the U.S. and Russia.
Attention is being paid to whether a deal to conclude RCEP negotiations will be reached in the Bangkok session.
–NNN-YONHAP
