1. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the European External Action Service (EEAS) of the European Union (EU), held the 5th Korea-EU International Conference on Middle Eastern and North African Affairs at the Four Seasons Hotel Seoul on May 2 and 3.

° The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the EU’s EEAS, has held the International Conference on Middle Eastern and North African Affairs since 2015 to exchange views on the situation in the Middle East, to seek policy coordination, and to build global networks with government officials and experts from the region.

2. Before the sessions, Deputy Minister for Political Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yoon Soon-gu and Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Korea Michael Reiterer delivered welcoming remarks on behalf of the two sides; and Senator of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Nasser S. Judeh, who had served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the country, gave a keynote speech on the situation in the Middle East and the role of the international community.

° Deputy Minister Yoon Soon-gu explained what has brought challenges and opportunities to the Middle East, adding that the ROK is making efforts to promote economic cooperation, expand exchanges mainly in areas of culture, science and technology, etc., and thereby enhance mutual trust with the Middle East.

3. In the Conference held under the overarching theme of “The Reshaping of the Middle East: New Challenges and Opportunities,” the participants covered in depth five topics: “Cooperation with the Middle East: Challenges & Opportunities”; “The Shifting Balance of Power in the Middle East”; “Future of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)”; “The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process”; and “Iran and the Middle East.”

° The Conference was attended by approximately 30 Middle East experts and government officials from home and abroad as speakers, as well as about 50 foreign diplomats to the ROK: Among the participants were Director and Deputy Managing Director of Middle East and North Africa of the EEAS Colin Scicluna; Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House Sanam Vakil; Policy Analyst at the European Policy Centre in the Kingdom of Belgium Katharina Bamberg; Professor at Peking University Bingbing Wu; Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in the State of Qatar Omar Rahman; Professor at Hanyang University Lee Hee-soo; Professor at Myongji University Park Hyon-do; Professor at Konkuk University Sung Il-kwang; Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy Lee Kwon-hyung; Research Fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies Jang Ji-hyang; Researcher at Dankook University Eum Ik-ran; and Researcher at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Paik Seung-hoon.

※ On May 2, the first day of the Conference, Director-General for African and Middle Eastern Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hong Jin-wook hosted an official welcoming dinner for the participants, which also was joined by foreign diplomats, including the Ambassadors of the EU, Jordan, the Kingdom of Morocco, the Arab Republic of Egypt, and the Republic of the Sudan to the ROK.

* unofficial translation