1. Mr. Yang Dong-han, Director-General for Bilateral Economic Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with Deputy Assistant Secretary for Trade Policy and Negotiations David Meale and Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Mark Knapper of the United States Department of State as his counterparts, had a director-general-level meeting via video conference on the morning of June 25 to consult preparations for the Republic of Korea-United States Senior Economic Dialogue (SED).

° The video conference was held to discuss matters concerning preparations for the 5th SED, which is tentatively scheduled for the second half of this year. The head for the Korean delegation will be Mr. Lee Taeho, 2nd Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the head for the U.S. delegation will be Keith Krach, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment.

2. At the director-general-level meeting, the two sides exchanged views on (i) cooperating in the areas of health and economy in response to COVID-19; (ii) the progress in connecting and enhancing cooperation between the New Southern Policy and the Indo-Pacific Strategy that the two countries have been pursuing so far; (iii) ways to promote global cooperation in areas like women’s economic empowerment and protecting the environment; and (iv) preparatory plans for the 5th SED.

° The two sides also took note of the important role that the economic cooperation between the ROK and the U.S., the core pillar of their alliance, played when the two countries were responding to COVID-19 and agreed to pursue close bilateral and multilateral cooperation for the recovery of the global economy, which is experiencing slowdown due to COVID-19.

° The two sides discussed ways to step up substantive cooperation in such areas as the development, infrastructure and digital sectors, and agreed to continue enhancing cooperation in the field of women’s economic empowerment.