1. Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang, Kyung-wha attended the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s “Davos Agenda Week Leadership Panel” as a panelist from 8:00 p.m. to 8:45 p.m., January 29 (Korea Standard Time).

2. Foreign Minister Kang stressed that in order to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and address current challenges, including response to climate change and the achievement of sustainable development goals, the international community should strengthen multilateral cooperation based on the values of solidarity and cooperation.

o In particular, Foreign Minister Kang stated that countries should avoid vaccine nationalism recently witnessed in some countries and make multilateral efforts to ensure universal and equitable access to vaccines and treatments. She also appreciated the role of the COVAX Facility in distributing vaccines, and emphasized the need to continue to utilize the mechanism in response to future health crises.

o In addition, Foreign Minister Kang said that the international community should also deepen multilateral cooperation on climate crisis, and explained that Korea will actively support response to climate change and the achievement of sustainable development goals through the P4G Summit to be hosted in Korea in May.

o She went on to say that in order to resolve current global challenges, the international community should strengthen the global health governance with the World Health Organization (WHO) at the center, actively respond to fake news, strengthen the participation of stakeholders from the private sector, and restore multilateralism.

3. The participants also discussed other key global issues, including ways to facilitate distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, to step up cooperation between the U.S. and China, to promote regional trade in Asia, and to harmonize priorities between domestic and foreign policies.

o The participants shared the view that in order to realize vaccine multilateralism, the leaders of the international community should gather together to establish a global vaccine strategy and support developing countries, including through financial support, the expansion of health infrastructure, and strengthening governance.

o On the U.S.-China relations, the participants stressed the need to actively identify mutually-beneficial areas and cooperate on them, given that the two countries are facing the need to overcome common crises and have become highly interdependent in their complex economic relations, although there have recently been some difficulties in the bilateral relations.

4. Foreign Minister Kang’s participation in the WEF’s Leadership Panel served as an opportunity to share Korea’s experiences on the response to COVID-19 as well as the global economic recovery, following President Moon Jae-in’s special address at the World Economic Forum 2021 on January 27. It was also an opportunity to discuss ways to collaborate with many Asian countries based on the spirit of solidarity and cooperation, thereby contributing actively to strengthening multilateral international cooperation.