Park to attend ASEAN and East Asia Summits

President Park Geun-hye shakes hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi before a meeting at the Myanmar International Convention Center in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, Wednesday. Both leaders agreed to expand cooperation on economic and world issues. / Yonhap

By Kang Seung-woo

President Park Geun-hye arrived in Myanmar Wednesday to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus three and East Asia Summits (EAS) Thursday to seek discussion and cooperation on key challenges facing the regions.

The Southeast Asian country is the second stop of Park’s three-nation tour, after completing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in China on Monday and Tuesday. After the two summits, Park is scheduled to fly to Brisbane, Australia, for a meeting with a group of 20 advanced and emerging economies.

ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam and three additional countries Korea, China and Japan.

The EAS, a regional leaders’ forum created in 2005, is comprised of 18 countries ― the 10 ASEAN members and eight dialogue partners ― Korea, China, Japan and the U.S., Russia, Australia, India and New Zealand. Unlike APEC, which mainly deals with economic matters, EAS is focused on a wider-range of issues.

This time, EAS is expected to seek ways to tackle such global issues as the ebola virus and the Islamic State terrorist group in Iraq, also known as ISIS, the presidential office said.

“President Park will encourage participants to step up efforts toward international security issues as part of strengthening its stature as a middle power state and aggressively participating in regional cooperation,“ said a Cheong Wa Dae official.

In addition, Park plans to call for concerted efforts to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program.

Korea and ASEAN initiated relations in November 1989 and the partnership was raised to summit level in 1997.

Since they established dialogue, bilateral ties have dramatically improved on the back of the Korea-ASEAN free trade agreement (FTA), signed in 2009, covering goods, services and investment.

ASEAN countries are Korea’s number two investment destination and its second-largest trade partners, with two-way trade amounting to $135 billion last year. The bloc is also the second-largest market for Korea’s construction industry.

In December, Korea will hold a summit with ASEAN in Busan.

Along with these summits, Park is also scheduled to hold talks with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.