Yoon seeks support for Busan Expo bid in bilateral talks at UN

Sep 20, 2023, 08:16 am

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South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol held nine summits with world leaders on the first day of his visit to New York on Monday to attend the UN General Assembly as he sought support for Busan’s bid to host the 2030 Expo. The president held summits with the leaders of Sri Lanka, San Marino, Montenegro, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Burundi, Turkmenistan, Saint Lucia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

AsiaToday reporter Hong Sun-mi

President Yoon Suk-yeol held a series of bilateral talks with world leaders on the first day of his visit to New York on Monday to attend the UN General Assembly as he sought support for South Korea’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo in Busan.

With two months left until the selection vote on Nov. 28, the South Korean government has set a goal to beat Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh and Italy’s Rome to make the southern port city of Busan selected as the host city of the World Expo 2030.

According to the presidential office, Yoon held summits with nine world leaders within 9 hours after his arrival in New York. He had one-on-one summits with the leaders of Sri Lanka, San Marino, Burundi, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Montenegro, Turkmenistan, Saint Lucia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Among them, San Marino, Burundi, and Montenegro are unfamiliar to the extent that their summit with South Korea is the first time since the establishment of diplomatic relations. However, they are all members of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the international organization controlling World Expos, and have the right to cast their votes to select the host for the 2030 event.

Yoon is scheduled to hold bilateral summits with 38 leaders as of now.

“During his stay in New York, the president will continue to hold bilateral talks with the leaders of 38 countries, followed by a series of group-specific summit luncheons and dinners,” senior presidential secretary for public relations Kim Eun-hye said.

While making sales pitches for Busan’s bid to host the World Expo, Yoon also urged world leaders to cooperate in development and attract investment.

During his summit with Czech President Petr Pavel, Yoon asked for the Czech’s interest in and support for South Korean companies seeking to participate in a new nuclear power plant project in Dukovany. During his summit with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Yoon discussed long-term partnership establishment, such as development cooperation, labor, response to climate change, trade and investment.

“Yoon’s trip is an all-out effort to strengthen economic cooperation,” Kim said. “The focus of the meetings will be on providing a breakthrough for our economy to improve people’s lives amid a complex internal and external crisis.”

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