Keynote Address by H.E. Dr. CHO Hyun,

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs

for the 14^th Korea-Middle East Cooperation Forum

Seoul, 28 November 2017

Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dr. Jawad Anani, thank you for your very good and long speech.

Excellencies, I do recognize familiar faces.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Korean government, I would like to welcome each and every one of you to this Forum. I am pleased that the Foreign Ministry has been hosting this Forum for the past fourteen years. I also thank all these co-hosts for this Forum: the Korea-Arab Society, particularly thank Ambassador Alharthy for your constructive role, the Jeju Peace Institute and the American University in Cairo. I understand your university is the best among all the American Universities all around the world. Without your close cooperation, we would not have this important event today.

As the 14^th Forum, I think it is taking us to a far good chance for establishing and enhancing good relationships between our two regions. It will definitely promote common understanding and mutual interest in years to come. The theme of the conference today is “New Vision for Korea-Middle East Cooperation.” I think the topic was well-chosen, particularly because it contains ‘New Vision.’ Because as you well aware of, we had a new government in May. We were able to have a fresh new start. Many countries in the Middle East also seem to be having a new start. Dr. Anani talked about “Ending of horrors in the Middle East.” I hope it will happen sooner or later. So this is a good opportunity, good time for us to talk about and to think about a ‘New Vision.’

Then how can we achieve it? I think we can easily think about at least three things. First thing is, of course, peace. I will not talk much about peace in the Middle East. It is complicated, you know much better than I do. I would rather like to talk little bit about peace in North East Asia, particularly the Korean peninsula. As you know, in this year alone we had witnessed the 19 Missile firings from North Korea and the 6^th nuclear test was done in September. That means we are living under the threat of nuclear weapons and missiles from North Korea. This is a perilous situation. Against these provocations, the Security Council of the United Nations immediately adopted, very expeditiously adopted the resolution of the hardest sanctions. Thanks to this opportunity, I thank all the countries in your region for fulfilling the resolution.  We believe that by doing so, we can pressure North Korea from going further than this. What is our policy? We will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapon state. Because it means that 50 million people in the South will be enslaved of the nuclear threat from the North. Nevertheless, we will also keep on pressuring. At the same time, keeping and opening the dialogue channel with North Korea; so that we can pull North Korea to a meaningful dialogue for denuclearization. It is easier said than done. We know it. But we believe that with all the cooperation of the international community, for the time being by implementing the Security Council resolutions, we will be able to achieve it. Peace is, I believe, insight.

Maybe we can connect this with the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, which is to be happening in February next year. I know that many of the Ambassadors here went to PyeongChang last Saturday, with our Foreign Minister. This is a precious opportunity for us because under the pressure or threats from North Korea, we think that we can realize it in a peaceful manner with your assistance. We have similar experiences thirty years ago. Back in 1988, we hosted Seoul Summer Olympic Games. The domestic political situation in Korea was not desirable at the time. But because of the worldwide attention to Seoul, we were able to proceed on presidential election and achieve democracy. Democracy blossomed afterwards. We have analogies from this. This time although we have been threatened by North Korea, if we can have a peaceful and successful Olympic Games in February and with the attention from world, because of this attention, North Korea cannot make any provocations. And we will proceed on towards peace on the Korean peninsula. I am not going to sell any tickets for PyeongChang Olympic Games but I want to draw your attention, and I hope many of you will come back to PyeongChang next February.

The second thing of ‘New Vision’ should be economic cooperation and prosperity. If we can cooperate with each other, we can achieve prosperity for both regions - Korea and many countries in the Middle East. We have experience in construction and many other cooperative areas. Now we are expanding area of information and communications technology (ICT), particularly renewable energy and medical and pharmaceutical activities. Years ago, I was involved in the launch of IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency). Korea played a constructive role in placing secretariats in the United Arab Emirates. We continued to work with many other countries in the region to explore new possibilities of renewable energy. And furthermore not just construction of conventional type but also building smart cities is fashion now. You might have seen the city of Song-do on the way to Seoul from Incheon airport. I want to encourage you to visit the smart city, Song-do. We can build together many smart cities in your region.   

The most important third point in realizing our ‘New Vision’ is enhancing and enlarging people-to-people context. We should know more about each other, we have to learn from each other, and learn to enjoy our cultures more than before. I am happy to learn that there are now more than 10,000 Arabic students studying in Korea; we wish we can afford more students here in Korea. There are also every year 7,000 patients from your region travel to Korea every year, to get treatment. And again we have many hospitals to accommodate patients from the region. As for the cultural exchange, we are very pleased to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the Arab Cultural Festival, which is to be expanded. Yes, indeed, these three things: achieving peace by helping each other; also achieving prosperity by joint investment, exchange of trades, etc.; and finally exchange of culture by enhancing people-to-people exchange, grassroots talks, etc. These are all important things that have been happening for the past ten years. And yet, I see bigger rooms for us to fill in. That is the reason I see the meaning of this conference; you will explore ways to enhance all the ways to meet each other and to make more investment and trade, and finally to achieve peace in the two regions.

I look forward to hearing from you and I look forward to meeting you again next year. Thank you very much. /End/