President Lee Jae Myung will host a dinner on Friday for the foreign ambassadors and diplomats to South Korea, using the occasion to rally support for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to be held in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, later this year, his office said Thursday.
Friday’s event will mark the first of its kind since Lee took office in June, with invitations extended to ambassadors from 117 countries with resident missions in South Korea and representatives of 30 international agencies based in Seoul, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said.
Besides foreign ambassadors and diplomats, the Lee administration’s special envoys abroad, lawmakers from the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, Cabinet members, and leaders of major businesses and economic associations will attend the dinner meeting as well, according to Kang.
The dinner event will begin with a prereception, followed by Lee’s speech. After dinner, Second Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jin-a will brief the attendees on preparations for the APEC summit. Remarks will be made by foreign ambassadors and diplomats before the event wraps up.
With less than three months left until South Korea hosts the 2025 APEC, scheduled for Oct. 31 to Nov. 1, Lee plans to express his hopes that the diplomatic corps in South Korea would serve as “a bridge for communication” among nations, Kang explained.
“Through his dinner address, President Lee will call on the diplomatic corps in South Korea to serve as a bridge for communication among nations, while outlining our government’s pragmatic diplomacy focused on the national interest,” Kang said.
“He will also introduce the multilateral diplomatic schedule for the second half of the year and request the cooperation and support of all foreign envoys in South Korea, including those from APEC member states, to ensure the success of the APEC summit in Gyeongju,” she added.
Kang also noted that the APEC summit is being held in South Korea for the first time in 20 years. The last time South Korea hosted the APEC summit was in 2005 in Busan.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
