South Korea and the European Union will hold talks this week to bolster cooperation in the development sector, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said Monday.

The two sides will meet in Brussels Wednesday for the fourth round of bilateral talks focused on development cooperation, the ministry said in a press release.

The EU is the world's largest donor that provides more than 50 percent of the world's development aid. In 2014, the EU as a body offered US$16.5 billion in official development assistance, while member states offered a total of $64.7 billion, according to the ministry.

South Korea's ODA reached $1.9 billion that year.

During the talks, the two sides will explain their development policies and current level of humanitarian assistance and discuss ways to cooperate on various global agendas such as the U.N.

Sustainable Development Goals, the ministry said. The goals were adopted last year with the aim of ending poverty, fighting inequality and injustice, and tackling climate change by 2030.

The meeting will be led by Lee Yong-soo, director-general of the ministry's development cooperation bureau, and Gustavo Martin Prada, director for EU development policy at the European Commission. (Yonhap)