ASEAN diplomacy on fast track

ASEAN diplomacy on fast track

HUA HIN, Thailand - President Lee Myung-bak's weeklong visit to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand bolstered Korea's relationship with Southeast Asia, a key pillar of his "New Asia Initiative." Lee elevated ties with Vietnam to a "strategic cooperative partnership" and clinched a range of cooperation agreements with Cambodia.

In Thailand, Lee and leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations confirmed "robust and vibrant" relations since the two sides launched a formal dialogue relationship 20 years ago. They agreed to consider upgrading the Korea-ASEAN relationship to a strategic partnership.

Lee returned to Seoul last night after wrapping up the tour with the East Asia Summit between ASEAN and its Asia-Pacific dialogue partners.

Lee championed the "New Asia Initiative" during his visit to Indonesia in March to diversify Korea's diplomatic front and bolster its influence in the fast-growing Asian bloc.

Despite geographic and cultural closeness, Southeast Asia had been widely sidelined in the nation's diplomatic portfolio as Korea narrowly focused its political ties on the four powers with strategic interest in the Korean Peninsula - the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

Leaders' declarations for bolstered ties with the region had rarely been followed up with practical diplomatic measures, leaving Korea-ASEAN ties both economic and cultural in nature and Korea's relationship with the regional bloc lagging behind China and Japan.

The two Northeast Asian powers have already made huge investments in, and given assistance to, the regional economies with high growth potential and rich natural resources.

Lee has aggressively pushed his Asia diplomacy as part of his "Global Korea" doctrine, which looks to the nation's greater role in regional and global spheres.

His Asia push culminated in June when he hosted a special summit with ASEAN leaders to commemorate 20 years of relations between the two sides.

During the summit, Lee announced a wide range of measures to boost cooperation, especially for Southeast Asia's development, green growth, cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

The two sides also declared closer ties in security issues and finalized five years of negotiations for a free trade agreement.

On Saturday, Lee and his ASEAN counterparts reviewed the progress in the agreements and discussed measures to advance future ties.

The leaders agreed to work together to promote their relationship to a higher level of strategic partnership in years to come as proposed by the Eminent Persons Group consisting of top experts from each country.

The group envisioned that political ties would advance reflecting the fast growing economic and cultural exchanges and to address new diplomatic and security challenges in the region and the world.

The total trade volume between ASEAN and Korea had substantially doubled in the last five years from $46.4 billion in 2004 to $90.2 billion in 2008, according to the EPG report.

Mutual investment amounted to $6.8 billion in 2008, which is more than five times the amount of $1.3 billion in 2004.

The number of visitors traveling between ASEAN and Korea has expanded by more than two-fold in the past five years, averaging four million people per year.

The EPG suggested that the partnership will evolve on the basis of their shared values symbolized by FEEL (Fellowship, Education, Environment, Liberalized Trade) Asia "as a basis for building the regional architecture process in East Asia and a beacon for us and for others to strive toward."

During the Saturday summit, the leaders confirmed their June commitment to increase bilateral trade from $90.2 billion in 2008 to $150 billion by 2015. Lee also reaffirmed his pledge to double Seoul's development assistance for poor ASEAN countries by that year.

On Wednesday, Lee and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Minh Triet agreed to form a "strategic cooperative partnership" paving the way for broader diplomatic and security cooperation.

The two countries will boost cooperation in international forums such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Group of 20, which Vietnam and Korea chair in 2010, respectively.

They also committed to make efforts to double bilateral trade volume to $20 billion by 2015. Triet promised to support Korean firms' participation in a range of projects to develop infrastructure, resources and financial businesses in Vietnam.

In a summit with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday, Lee agreed to sharply increase Korea's development assistance and promote a range of cooperation projects in industrialization, agriculture, resources and forest plantation.

(jjhwang@heraldm.com)

By Hwang Jang-jin/Korea Herald correspondent

2009.10.26