Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
ROUNDTABLE G7 envoys urge Korea to take bigger role on international stage
Korea Times President-Publisher Oh Young-jin, left, and Korea Foundation President Lee Geun, right, pose with heads of diplomatic missions from the G7 countries to Korea during a roundtable at The Korea Times' office in central Seoul, May 13. From left are Oh, German Ambassador Michael Reiffenstuel, EU Ambassador Maria Castillo Fernandez, Canadian Ambassador Michael Danagher, British Ambassador Simon Smith, French Ambassador Philippe Lefort, Italian Ambassador Federico Failla and U.S. Charge d'Affaires ad interim Robert Rapson and Lee. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
By Kwon Mee-yoo
This is the first in a two-part series of roundtables commemorating Korea's planned participation in the G7 Summit 2021, produced in collaboration with the Korea Foundation. ― ED.
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Envoys to Korea from the G7 countries said Korea's participation in the upcoming G7 Summit in Britain shows its enhanced status in the international community, encouraging it to play a bigger role in resolving global challenges.
Their remarks came during a roundtable of diplomatic missions from the G7, May 13, co-organized by The Korea Times and the Korea Foundation (KF). The event was held about a month ahead of the summit, slated for June 11 to 13 in Cornwall, England, where Korea has been invited as a guest country along with India, Australia and South Africa.
At this year's summit, the participating nations will discuss how to tackle a handful of urgent global issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.
Envoys from the G7 countries ― Ambassadors Simon Smith of the United Kingdom, Michael Danagher of Canada, Philippe Lefort of France, Michael Reiffenstuel of Germany, Federico Failla of Italy, Maria Castillo Fernandez of EU and U.S. Charge d'Affaires ad interim Robert Rapson ― took part in the roundtable to discuss the importance of the summit and share their thoughts on the potential agenda. A representative from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, another G7 member, was unable to attend.
"Since the G7 Summit is a consultative body of advanced countries and a forum for discussing many of the most important global issues, I believe that Korea's participation and contribution will be a shining moment in the country's diplomatic history," Lee Geun, president of the KF, said in his opening remarks.
Lee emphasized the G7 Summit's role as a critical platform in addressing global challenges, fostering international public opinion and leading international cooperation.
"Many important global issues that were, for a long time, overshadowed by the pandemic were addressed at the meeting of the G7 Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Development (in early May). Democracy and human rights issues; climate change; open society; a rules-based international order; fair trade; free and secure flows of capital, data, knowledge, ideas, and talent; cyber governance; global collaboration for vaccine distribution; human rights and gender issues; and security issues in various regions were dealt with. Now is the time for global stakeholders to join forces on these important issues," Lee said.
With The Korea Times President-Publisher Oh Young-jin presiding over the roundtable, the envoys spoke of their respective countries' agenda items for the G7 Summit and shared ideas on how to cooperate on global issues that need international attention.
British Ambassador Smith gave a brief introduction to the G7, pointing out that it is in fact a voluntary institution without any legal standing.
"The G7 cannot make the law. What it can do is show some really powerful and strong leadership by kicking off practical initiatives. It can actually kick start momentum on addressing serious global problems," Smith said.
Smith spoke of his expectations for Korea to step up in global society with increasing responsibility based upon its participation as a guest country this year.
"The Republic of Korea in what it has done in recent years has itself raised expectations. It has shown its capability and capacity. It's shown that it is up for a global leadership role. And this invitation to this year's G7 is very much an opportunity for the Republic of Korea to make that leadership role a reality," Smith said.
Rapson of the U.S. and Castillo of the EU echoed Smith's expectations for the guests invited to the summit, especially Korea.
"You're expected to act as almost a full G7 partner. And we're looking forward especially to Korea's contributions throughout this G7 year, given that Korea plays a pertinent and important role, starting with the COVID crisis and quickly over to climate issues," Rapson said.
"We are all very key strategic partners of Korea and Korea is an active player in diplomacy. We want Korea to shoulder responsibilities with us, expecting Korea to play a more active role in international affairs," Castillo said.
"I hope this G7 meeting will be an opportunity for Korean people to be educated about global governance, not only issues related to the Korean Peninsula or Korea-Japan relations. I do hope Korea, sooner or later, will be a very responsible stakeholder in global issues," Lee of the KF responded.
Participants in a roundtable co-hosted by The Korea Times and the Korea Foundation discuss agenda items for the upcoming G7 Summit 2021 at the newspaper's office in central Seoul, May 13. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
Climate change top priority
Canada's Danagher mentioned how the tasks the world is now up against have not emerged just recently.
"When Canada hosted (G7 Summit) in 2018, the themes were gender equality, global engagement, income inequality, sustainable development. I don't think any of those have diminished, rather the opposite with the challenges that the global pandemic poses. And it has refocused and re-energized our efforts," Danagher said.
Climate change is a top priority on the summit agenda as the G7 nations aim to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and support the transition to a low carbon economy, as agreed to in the Paris Agreement in 2015.
French Ambassador Lefort looked forward to making more efforts in tackling climate change through the G7 Summit.
“The aftermath of the Paris Agreement and the limitation of global warming is a very crucial issue indeed. And we expect and hope that the G7 will be an occasion again to make more commitments on this as well as other issues such as biodiversity," Lefort said.
Reiffenstuel of Germany highlighted the role of G7 in fighting climate change globally.
"We think, especially in climate change, it is vital that we take responsibility and be a reliable partner for the more vulnerable countries. And this is something why we very much welcome that the U.K. puts a very strong focus at this G7 on resilience to climate change," the German ambassador said.
While other international forums also focus on climate change, Italian Ambassador Failla related the issue to another international event; the G20 forum to be held in Rome in October.
"In our G20 program, we have identified what we call the three Ps ― people, planet, prosperity ― meaning that the three things are equally important and you cannot have one without the other. It is a chain that links these three concepts," Failla said.