1. At the Foreign Ministry on July 2, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se will hold the third meeting with his counterparts from Cuarteto countries of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the largest regional cooperative mechanism in the region with 33 member states.

º The CELAC delegation to the meeting will include Foreign Ministers Manuel Gonzalez Sanz and Ricardo Patino of Costa Rica and Ecuador, respectively, as well as Director-General of Multilateral Affairs and International Law Pedro Nunez Mosquera of the Cuban Foreign Ministry.

2. In their first Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Seoul this year following the two held on the sidelines of UN General Assembly sessions in 2012 and 2013, respectively, the two sides will cover a wider range of fields beyond trade and economy to include politics, society, culture, regional situations and global issues.

º The consultation with CELAC, which is growing as a leading regional cooperative mechanism in Latin America, on climate change, disarmament, non-proliferation, post-2015 development agenda and other global issues, is expected to help expand the diplomatic horizon of the ROK, a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and representative middle-power country.

º The meeting is also expected to pave the way for winning support and cooperation of Latin America as a whole on issues concerning the Korean Peninsula.

3. In the forthcoming meeting, Minister Yun will relay the ROK’s strong willingness to work more closely with Latin America. In particular, as the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the ROK and Latin American countries falls around the year 2012, the ROK and the CELAC delegations will review the progress in the ROK-Latin America ties over the past half century and seek a vision toward shared prosperity in the future.

º To this end, the ROK side will speak about the ROK government’s efforts to step up substantive cooperation with Latin America and ask for attention and support of CELAC in this regard. The two sides will also discuss in detail possible cooperation projects.

4. CELAC is the largest regional mechanism that the ROK holds bilateral dialogue with. The ROK-CELAC Foreign Ministers’ meeting will come as part of the former’s efforts to hold dialogue with a wider range of regional consultative mechanisms. As such, together with bilateral diplomacy with individual countries, it is expected to help the ROK broaden its diplomatic horizon and enhance its international standing.

6. On the sidelines of the multilateral meeting, Minister Yun will meet bilaterally with his counterparts from Costa Rica and Ecuador on July 1 to explore ways to promote bilateral cooperation. The meeting with Costa Rica, where a new government was launched in early May, will focus on ways to bolster substantive cooperation in environment, green growth and e-government, while the one with Ecuador will mainly cover ways to enhance practical cooperation in grant, economy, trade and public healthcare. 


                Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

* unofficial translation