President Park Geun-hye will attend the Group of 20 (G20) summit in China and forums with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations early next month, her office Cheong Wa Dae said Thursday.
Park will fly to Hangzhou on Sept. 4 for the two-day summit of the advanced and emerging economies, which will be held under the main theme, "Towards an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy."
At the G-20 summit, Park, along with world leaders, will discuss "inclusive and innovative" ways to stimulate economic growth and joint efforts to address volatility in the global financial market and shore up global trade, Cheong Wa Dae said in a press release.
This photo, taken on Aug. 17, 2016, shows President Park Geun-hye speaking during a meeting with leaders of provincial governments at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul. (Yonhap)
Her trip to China was arranged amid growing tensions over the planned deployment of an advanced U.S. anti-missile system to South Korea. Attention is being drawn to whether Park and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will discuss the deployment on the sidelines of the multilateral summit.
Following the G-20 gathering, the president will travel to the Laotian capital of Vientiane on Sep. 7 for summit meetings related to the 10-member ASEAN -- South Korea's strategically crucial partner whose regional influence has been increasing since it launched the ASEAN Community late last year.
The resource-rich Southeast Asian states are of great strategic importance as they stretch across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where the world's most crucial trading and energy supply routes pass, including the vulnerable and congested Strait of Malacca.
During the summit with the ASEAN, Park will explore ways to strengthen the bilateral strategic partnership with the bloc, her office said. The ASEAN is South Korea's second largest trading partner with two-way trade reaching $120 billion last year.
On Sept. 7, Park will attend the ASEAN-plus-three summit that also includes the leaders of China and Japan. The following day, she will attend the East Asia Summit to discuss an array of regional issues.
From Sept. 8-9, Park will pay an official visit to Laos, which was arranged on the invitation of Laotian President Bounnhang Vorachith. It will mark the first time that a South Korean president has officially visited the Southeast Asian state since the two nations reopened diplomatic ties in 1995.
On Sept. 9, the leaders of South Korea and Laos will hold a summit to discuss trade, investment, development and other areas of mutual concern, the presidential office said. (Yonhap)
