1. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, along with Union Minister for International Cooperation of Myanmar U Kyaw Tin, co-chaired the 8th ROK-Mekong Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Singapore on August 3, and discussed ways to greatly enhance cooperation with countries in the Mekong region, a key region for ASEAN integration, as well as a major partner in the New Southern Policy.

※ The ROK-Mekong Foreign Ministers’ Meeting was launched at the proposal of the ROK in 2011 to contribute to reducing the development gap in ASEAN through support for the development of the Mekong region, and to facilitate economic cooperation between the ROK and the region. It takes place annually between the ROK and five Mekong countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Thailand).

2. The Ministers from the two sides took note that cooperation between the ROK and the Mekong countries had steadily increased since the launch of the bilateral mechanism in 2011, and had been continuing to expand and deepen based on various institutional bases, including the 2nd ROK-Mekong Plan of Action (2017-20) adopted last year; the project on the ROK-Mekong cooperation fund; development cooperation through bilateral ODA to the Mekong countries; and the ROK-Mekong business forum.

o Minister Kang noted the potential of the Mekong countries, emerging as an engine of global economic growth, and said that the ROK would work to elevate cooperation with the countries in the Mekong region, a key cooperation partner in the New Southern Policy, to a higher level, and thereby contribute to narrowing the development gap and enhancing connectivity in ASEAN, and other efforts to integrate ASEAN, as well as improving the lives of the people in the Mekong countries.

※ The five Mekong countries account for 53 percent of trade and 58 percent of people-to-people exchanges between the ROK and ASEAN.

o The two sides noted that cooperation regarding the New Southern Policy’s three pillars (people, prosperity, and peace) and four connectivity areas (transportation, energy, water resources, and ICT) was to contribute to enhancing connectivity and reducing the development gap mainly in the Mekong region, and agreed to expand cooperation.

o Furthermore, the two sides agreed to actively work together to elevate the ROK-Mekong cooperation to a higher level through the New Southern Policy, and hoped that the ROK-Mekong relations would develop in a wider range of areas under the New Southern Policy.

3. Regarding regional situation, Minister Kang told the Mekong side that following the two inter-Korean summits and the US-North Korea summit in the first half of the year, inter-Korean relations switched to a phase of peace and dialogue, and asked for the Mekong countries’ continued support and cooperation to achieve the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and to establish a lasting peace on the Peninsula.

4. The ROK-Mekong Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, held amid active efforts to implement the New Southern Policy, served as an opportunity to strengthen substantive cooperation with the Mekong countries, key partners in the policy, and to accelerate efforts to elevate cooperation between the two sides to a higher level.

* unofficial translation