[Newsmaker] Park headed to first G20

President Park Geun-hye

President Park Geun-hye leaves for Russia on Wednesday to attend the G20 summit, making her debut in multinational summit diplomacy. Park will also make a state visit to Vietnam later this week as the first leg of her “sales diplomacy.”

The eighth G20 Summit will be held Sept. 5-6 in St. Petersburg under the theme, “The Growth of the Global Economy and the Creation of Quality Jobs.”

In her lead speech at the first session, Park is expected to highlight the need for the major economies’ cooperation to tackle low growth, unemployment and uncertainties and steer the global economy into sustainable growth.

It will also be a stage to introduce South Korea’s efforts to spur growth and achieve a 70 percent employment rate via her creative economy policy, observers said.

Park is expected to take the opportunity to ensure Korea’s commitment to the G20 Development Agenda, launched at Korea’s initiative at the 2010 G20 Seoul Summit by her predecessor Lee Myung-bak.

Throughout the event, Park will be attending key discussion sessions and a working dinner as well as a luncheon, joined by such counterparts as Russia’s Vladimir Putin, the United States’ Barack Obama, China’s Xi Jinping and Germany’s Angela Merkel.

Park is scheduled to hold several bilateral talks on the sidelines of the summit.

It remains to be seen whether Park will encounter Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Seoul has been negative toward holding one-on-one summit talks amidst tension instigated by Tokyo’s right-wing tendencies to glorify its history of aggression.

Park will then fly over to Vietnam on Saturday for a five-day stay upon the invitation of Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang.

Park’s choice of Vietnam as the third destination of her official visit after the U.S. in May and China in June demonstrates the new government’s emphasis on enhancing ties with the ASEAN countries as part of the new sales diplomacy, observers said.

In her summit with President Truong Tan Sang, they will discuss the 21-year-old bilateral relations and a vision for the future on economy, politics and culture. Park is also expected to seek Vietnam’s support in her trust-building process for North Korea and the Northeast Asian Peace and Cooperation Initiative for the region.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)