1. Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Lee Tae-ho will attend the 9th Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting to take place in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, on Saturday, November 9, and discuss ways forward for FEALAC of which this year marks the 20^th anniversary since its establishment.

○ FEALAC is a multilateral inter-governmental consultative mechanism launched in 1999 with an aim to enhance cooperation and mutual understanding between East Asia and Latin America. The Republic of Korea (ROK) has actively contributed to the development of FEALAC such as holding the 8^th FEALAC Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in 2017.

2. The upcoming meeting will be attended by high-level officials including Foreign Ministers from 36 countries in East Asia and Latin America. The participants will discuss the activities of FEALAC in celebration of its 20^th anniversary, ways to promote connectivity between the two regions and various ways for substantive cooperation among the member states. In addition, they will adopt a joint statement containing FEALAC’s ways forward for the next two decades.

3. On the occasion of the upcoming meeting, Vice Minister Lee will have bilateral talks with Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas of the Dominican Republic and Vice Foreign Minister Francisco Echeverri of the Republic of Colombia on matters of mutual interest between the two countries.

4. After attending the FEALAC Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Vice Minister Lee will visit the Republic of Costa Rica on November 10-12, meet with the Second Vice President Marvin Rodríguez and Vice Foreign Minister Lorena Aguilar of the Republic of Costa Rica, and discuss major current issues between the two countries and ways for cooperation on the international stage.

5. At the FEALAC Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Vice Minister Lee is expected to reaffirm the ROK’s leading role and contribution within FEALAC such as proposing FEALAC’s long-term development visions and ways to strengthen the institutionalization of FEALAC, and contribute to diversifying the ROK’s diplomacy and reinforcing its middle power diplomacy.

○ Furthermore, Vice Minister Lee’s visit to Costa Rica is expected to contribute to laying the groundwork for helping the ROK companies obtain infrastructure projects in Costa Rica and enhancing substantive cooperation between the two countries following the entry into force of the Free Trade Agreement between the Republic of Korea and the Republics of Central America (November 1).