By Delfin Colome
Spanish ambassador to Korea
Under the patronage of the Korea Foundation and Casa Asia, the Korea-Spain Forum has been held in Madrid with the participation of 60 representatives of the different sectors of civil society of both countries.
This was the fourth time that the forum convened. The first meeting took place in Seoul in November 2003, followed by Barcelona in July 2005 and Jeju in September 2006.
Meeting in Madrid this time had special meaning as only three days before, the direct flight from Seoul to Madrid, operated by Korean Air, was inaugurated _ an auspicious element which will, without any doubt, foster the communication between the two countries.
The number of Korean citizens visiting Spain has dramatically increased in the last two years, following the trend of the enormous boom that Korean tourism abroad is experiencing.
Some 50,000 Koreans visited Spain in 2006. But this figure is lower than the actual one, as a lot of tourists come to Spain from other EU-Schengen countries and do not need to show their passports when arriving in Spain.
Spain is among the most visited countries in Europe, ranging between number two and three in the world with 60 million visitors last year. Tourism is one of the best assets for improving reciprocal knowledge between the citizens of Korea and Spain.
In tune with this trend _ another tool for improving relations and knowledge _ are the meetings of the Korea-Spain Forum. Civil societies of both countries get together not only to discuss in an extremely open way matters of common interests but also to create the necessary networks between people and institutions that provide substance to bilateral relationships.
In the same way that somebody said war is too important to be left only in the hands of generals, I like to say that international relations are also too relevant to be left only in the hands of diplomats and governments.
Civil society has an increasing role all over the world in the definition of foreign policies. And in the case of Korea and Spain, this is especially decisive.
The reason for this is because our two societies live in quite similar situations and have experienced _ similar to the last quarter of a century _ a high level of development in social, political, cultural and of course, economic terms.
Korea is today the 12th leading economy in the world. Spain is 8th, its GDP having overcome that of Canada, a country that is a member of the G7.
Therefore, the forum meeting in Madrid has been a great exercise for the civil society to lead the way for politicians in questions such as the ``triangular’’ relationship of Korea-Spain-Latin America _ not only in economic or trade terms, but cultural and social, as well as tourism and industrial and technological cooperation, etc.
Special emphasis was given to the inauguration next spring of Instituto Cervantes, the Spanish Cultural Centre in Seoul.
As I could underline during the forum, Korea now has the Asian record (having surpassed Japan and China) of students applying to get the DELE, the diploma of Spanish as a foreign language or the Spanish equivalent of TOEFL.
At the opening session, Ambassador Yim Sung-joon, president of the Korea Foundation, stressed his wish for Korea and Spain to become allied in a friendly complicity. After the forum, I am sure that our very active, dynamic, civil societies are most willing to do so!