Yoon likely to attend NATO summit

Jun 10, 2022, 07:40 am

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President Yoon Suk-yeol answers reporters’ questions on his way into the presidential office in Yongsan, central Seoul, on June 10, 2022./ Source: Yonhap

AsiaToday reporter Lee Wook-jae

President Yoon Suk-yeol is expected to attend a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meeting in Madrid, Spain, at the end of this month.

Since U.S. President Joe Biden has confirmed his attendance and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is highly likely to attend the summit, Yoon may hold a summit with Biden and Kishida on the sidelines of the NATO gathering.

“We are preparing for it, but it’s difficult to say it’s been fixed,” Yoon told reporters at the presidential office in Yongsan when asked if he plans to attend the NATO meeting. Although the president did not confirm his attendance, his remarks indicate that his attendance is likely.

In fact, the President’s Office recently sent a preliminary inspection team consisting of officials from the presidential security team, protocol team, and communication office to Madrid to make preparations for the president’s trip to Spain.

If Yoon attends the meeting, it will be his debut on the multilateral diplomatic stage, and his reunion with Biden in only 40 days. Yoon’s Madrid trip would also break the tradition of former presidents visiting the U.S. for their first overseas trip since taking office.

As the Biden administration announced that they would adopt an updated Strategic Concept to respond to rapid militarization of Russia and China, attention is focused on what message Yoon would deliver and how he would communicate with the leaders of NATO members.

In a joint statement at the Korea-U.S. summit held last month, Yoon laid out the country’s initiative for a global pivotal state that envisions a heightened role in advancing freedom, peace, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. Yoon is likely to deliver a message condemning threats toward the international order.

Attention is also focused on the possibility of a Korea-Japan summit, as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is expected to attend the summit.

If Yoon meets Kishida, it would be the first summit between Korean and Japanese leaders in over two years since the Korea-China-Japan summit held in China in December 2019. Yoon is willing to improve Seoul-Tokyo relations. During his presidential campaign, Yoon revealed that he would hold summit meetings in the order of the United States, Japan, China, and North Korea.

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