1. Minister of Foreign Affairs Chung Eui-yong talked over the phone with Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Jean-Yves Le Drian on March 26 and exchanged views on matters of mutual interest, including Korea-France bilateral relations, global issues such as response to COVID-19 and climate change, and situations on the Korean Peninsula and in other regions.

2. The two Foreign Ministers, appreciating that Korea and France continued high-level exchanges in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic, agreed to maintain close cooperation in 2021 in order to advance the relations between the two countries.

° Foreign Minister Le Drian highly commended Korea’s response to COVID-19, and the two countries agreed to continue bolstering bilateral and multilateral cooperation on health.

° Foreign Minister Chung lauded France for playing a leading role in response to climate change and the protection of biodiversity, asking for France’s participation at the highest level in the “2021 Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 (P4G) Summit” to take place in a virtual format at the end of this May.

3. Foreign Minister Chung asked France, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, to continuously pay attention to and cooperate for the complete denuclearization and the establishment of permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula. Foreign Minister Le Drian responded that France strongly supports the Korean government’s efforts to achieve the denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and improve inter-Korean relations.