| President Moon Jae-in speaks during a virtual Korea-ASEAN summit at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday. Yonhap |
By Do Je-hae
President Moon Jae-in announced a more advanced version of his New Southern Policy for promoting ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) during a video-linked Korea-ASEAN summit, Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday.
During the summit, Moon introduced the New Southern Policy Plus strategy, an advanced version of his trademark diplomatic strategy to intensify cooperation with Southeast Asia on various fronts.
"This year marks the 10th anniversary of the strategic partnership between ASEAN and Korea. Korea has prepared a New Southern Policy Plus strategy, evaluating that the vision and achievements of the New Southern Policy are helpful to both ASEAN and Korea," Moon said in a speech.
"The New Southern Policy Plus strategy contains new and actionable measures focusing on seven key areas of cooperation, including comprehensive health and medical cooperation. We hope that ASEAN and Korea will enjoy greater prosperity together through the New Southern Policy Plus strategy," Moon said.
He underlined that the COVID-19 pandemic calls for closer cooperation between Korea and ASEAN. "The extent of damage caused by COVID-19 varies from country to country, and no country can be assured of safety until treatments and vaccines are developed and distributed to all. However, if ASEAN and Korea cooperate, they will be able to proactively respond to COVID-19, and the resulting social and economic changes."
The presidential office has underscored that there had been noticeable contributions to diversifying Korea's diplomacy and deepening ties with Southeast Asia since the Moon administration announced the New Southern Policy in November 2017.
Based on the policy, Moon has toured all 10 ASEAN member states and hosted the Korea-ASEAN special summit Nov. 25 and 26, 2019, in Busan, which was the biggest diplomatic event under the Moon administration.
"The external factors, such as the rapid shift to a digital economy and the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, as well as the reorganization of global supply chains, have highlighted the need to upgrade the New Southern Policy in order to meet the new demands for cooperation from ASEAN," a presidential aide told reporters.
During a speech at the summit, Moon elaborated on the seven strategic initiatives for the New Southern Policy Plus, based on the principles of "people," "prosperity" and "peace."
They are: comprehensive health and medical cooperation to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic; sharing Korea's education and human resource development models; promotion of cultural exchanges by utilizing hallyu content; developing mutually beneficial trade relations and investment; cooperation in the development of farming and urban infrastructure; cooperation in future industries; and cooperation in non-conventional security.
The Korean leader also underscored his push for his peace process on the Korean Peninsula and asked for ASEAN support.
The Korea-ASEAN summit took place after the ASEAN summit was opened earlier in the day by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the chairman of this year's ASEAN summit.
The Korea-ASEAN summit was the first of five ASEAN-related meetings that Moon will take part in from Thursday to Sunday. Cheong Wa Dae is expecting the summits to be an important occasion for responding to and overcoming the pandemic, based on solidarity and cooperation of the international community.
On Friday, Moon will participate in the Korea-Mekong summit and the ASEAN+3 (Korea, Japan, China) summit, and on Saturday, the East Asia summit.
On Sunday, Moon will take part in the signing ceremony for a large free trade deal ― the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) ― combining the economies of 10 ASEAN countries with five others ― Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.