1. Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Lee Jeong-kyu will attend in his capacity as the Republic of Korea’s head delegate the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF)’s 29th Post-Forum Dialogue with Dialogue Partners (PFD) in Samoa on September 7.

※ The PIF, a summit-level consultative mechanism among eighteen independent countries in the Pacific, including Australia, New Zealand, and other island countries and self-governing dominions, was founded in 1971 to seek development of the South Pacific region.

※ Starting from 1989, the PFD has taken place on the sidelines of the PIF summit for consultations with non-regional countries interested in the region and to enhance the international standing of the PIF.

- The ROK, one of the eighteen PFD Partners, including the US, Japan, China and the EU, after first attending the seventh PFD in 1995, has since participated in the annual event .

2. At the forthcoming PFD, Pacific island countries and the eighteen PIF PFD Partners, including the ROK, the US, Japan, China and the EU, will discuss in depth such issues of mutual concern as ways to reinforce maritime governance in the Pacific and to achieve resilient development.

° The ROK delegation, along with those from the UK and France, will take part in a panel discussion, during which it will share with the other participants contributions of the ROK as one of the countries in the Pacific region and a PFD Partner to sustainable development of the region; and exchange views with them on ways to step up cooperation pursuant to the Paris Agreement, as well as ways for the international community to work together on climate change, including helping use resources in the best possible manner, and toward resilient development in the area of disaster management.

3. On the sidelines of the PIF/PFD, Deputy Minister Lee will meet bilaterally with delegates from 14 Pacific island countries to learn about their matters of concern in preparation for the third ROK-Pacific Islands foreign ministerial meeting scheduled to take place in Seoul in December 2017.

° The ROK holds in the country every three years a foreign ministerial meeting with the Pacific island countries, the ROK’s major cooperation partners at the UN and on other international stages as well as one of the ROK’s top deep sea fishing destinations, to enhance mutual understanding and communication with those countries. At the meeting, the ROK seeks ways to step up substantive cooperation with the Pacific island countries, whose abundant marine resources are growing in significance for the future.

※ Delegations from the following 14 Pacific island countries have been invited to the ROK every three years since 2011 for the foreign ministerial meeting:
- Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Tubalu, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Palau and Niue

- The inaugural meeting was held in May 2011, followed by the second in November 2014.

※ The Pacific island countries carry strategic significance in that:
- They comprise a quarter of the Asian group at the UN and on other international stages.
- Ninety-two percent of the tuna in the ROK is from the region.
- They have abundant liquefied natural gas (LNG) reserves and seafloor hydrothermal deposits, which are drawing keen attention as resources for the future.

4. By attending the upcoming PIF/PFD, the ROK is expected to bolster its cooperative network with the Pacific island countries at the bilateral and multilateral levels and thereby to broaden its diplomatic horizon in the Pacific region.


* unofficial translation