1. On March 19, Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul held a meeting with Maneesh Gobin, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade of Mauritius, who visited Korea to attend the Ministerial Conference of the 3rd Summit for Democracy. They exchanged views on mutual interests, including Korea-Mauritius substantive cooperation, cooperation on the international stage, and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

※ Foreign Minister Gobin, who took office in August 2023, is visiting Korea for the second time following his visit in December 2023 as part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' invitation program.

2. Foreign Minister Cho expressed his gratitude for Minister Gobin's participation in the Ministerial Conference of the 3rd Summit for Democracy and looked forward to close cooperation with Mauritius, a leading African country in democracy and economic development.

3. Foreign Minister Gobin thanked the Korean government for the invitation to the Summit for Democracy, highly appraised Korea's contributions to and role in the international community in defending democracy, and expressed hope that the current active high-level exchanges would further deepen substantive cooperation between the two countries.

4. The Foreign Ministers appreciated that infrastructure cooperation between the two countries is actively progressing as could be seen from the cooperation project between Korea Expressway Corporation and the Mauritius Road Development Authority. Also taking note of growing development cooperation mainly in capacity building in agriculture and customs administration as well as in increasing accessibility to education, the two sides agreed to strengthen substantive cooperation in various fields, including by concluding an air service agreement to promote tourism cooperation between the two countries.

5. Regarding cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, Foreign Minister Gobin stated that Mauritius, the host of the Secretariats of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), plays a crucial role in enhancing maritime security, including combating increasingly frequent piracy in the Indian Ocean of late, and hoped to strengthen cooperation with Korea in this area.

6. In response, Foreign Minister Cho, calling Mauritius Korea’s key partner for its Indo-Pacific Strategy and a cooperation leader within IORA, expected that the two countries will work more closely together in enhancing maritime security.

7. With respect to the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the Foreign Ministers shared the view on the importance of international cooperation and agreed to work closely together, as North Korea continues threatening rhetoric and provocations, defines inter-Korean relations as those between “hostile and belligerent states,” and thereby threatens peace and stability on  the Korean Peninsula and beyond.

8. Foreign Minister Cho expressed hope for the attendance of the Prime Minister of Mauritius at the upcoming Korea-Africa Summit scheduled for June 4-5. Foreign Minister Gobin appreciated the Korean government's commitment to strengthening cooperation with Africa, and stated that efforts would be made to ensure the Mauritian leader's attendance.