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Foreign Minister Cho Hyun delivers opening remarks during a press conference held in the briefing room at the Government Complex Seoul Annex in Jongno-gu, Seoul, on the morning of July 22. / Photo by Reporter Park Seong-il of Asia Today

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun will visit Manila, Philippines, for a two-day trip starting July 22 to attend the ASEAN-related Foreign Ministers' Meetings. During his visit, Minister Cho plans to hold various bilateral and multilateral meetings on the sidelines of the ASEAN sessions to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation between South Korea and ASEAN.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July 14, Minister Cho will co-chair the 29th Korea-ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting alongside Thailand on July 22, and is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with foreign ministers from key countries, including the Philippines, this year's ASEAN chair.

The following day, he will participate in a series of high-level meetings, including the 27th ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the 33rd ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the 16th East Asia Summit (EAS) Foreign Ministers' Meeting, and the 14th Korea-Mekong Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

Through his participation in these ASEAN-related meetings, Minister Cho will officially begin implementing the government's "Korea-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) Vision" and discuss concrete measures to beef up cooperation with ASEAN in areas such as AI and creative cultural industries.

He also plans to seek ways to reinforce regional supply chain resilience in sectors like energy and food under the ASEAN Plus Three framework with China and Japan, while expressing the South Korean government's commitment to contributing to regional security issues, including countering transnational crimes.

The Foreign Ministry is currently in consultations to arrange bilateral and trilateral talks on the sidelines of the event, including a South Korea-U.S.-Japan trilateral meeting as well as Korea-U.S. and Korea-Japan bilaterals. Attention is also focused on whether a bilateral meeting will take place with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who is currently coordinating his schedule to visit South Korea.

We have schedules for bilateral meetings with other nations in addition to the U.S. and Japan, and we will finalize the schedule by taking all of these into account, a Foreign Ministry official said. However, the official noted that the upcoming ASEAN-related meetings and Minister Wang's visit to Seoul are not being pushed forward in connection with each other.

                                                                                                           Mok Yong-jae