1. The fifth foreign ministerial meeting of MIKTA will take place in Seoul on May 22, marking the first of its kind to be held in the Republic of Korea, the second MIKTA chair from September 2014 through August 2015 after Mexico. The ROK’s head delegate to the meeting, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, will preside over the meeting that will bring together the foreign ministers of the five MIKTA member countries.

◦ Minister Yun will host a welcoming dinner on May 21, followed by the fifth MIKTA foreign ministerial meeting and bilateral meetings among MIKTA countries the next day.

◦ The MIKTA meeting is expected to demonstrate the ROK’s multilateral diplomatic capacity and to broaden its diplomatic horizon. It is also expected to become a starting point for MIKTA to produce tangible results and take a leap forward as global governance.

2. At the meeting, the top diplomats will adopt a document laying out MIKTA’s identity and its future vision. In addition, on the occasion of the event, an official website of MIKTA will be launched, enhancing the mechanism’s visibility. The member states will discuss the progress in the ongoing cooperation projects as well as regional and global issues in an effort to produce tangible results from the meeting.

◦ Session I will cover the outcome of such cooperation projects as exchanges among journalists, students and junior diplomats as well as the launch on May 11 of an academic network, while session II will deal with key pending issues, including development cooperation and cyber security. On the sidelines of the multilateral meeting will be an ROK-Australia and an ROK-Mexico and other bilateral meetings.

◦ MIKTA is contributing to international efforts to promote the public good and its member country’s efforts to boost exchanges amongst them. In addition to exchanges among their journalists and students, the MIKTA members will hold a meeting of their parliament speakers in July and a business forum in a bid to boost economic cooperation among them.

3. Minister Yun voiced his expectation that the fifth MIKTA foreign ministerial meeting will demonstrate the ROK’s capacity for global diplomatic networking and bringing together important figures of the global community, and will help open up a new horizon in middle power diplomacy. He added that MIKTA will become the core mechanism for the ROK’s middle power diplomacy and that the forthcoming meeting will yield tangible outcome and consolidate MIKTA’s stature as a major global governance mechanism.

4. MIKTA is a cooperative mechanism among middle power countries that, despite their regional and cultural differences, share such core values as democracy and liberal market economy and have willingness and capacity to pursue the public good and development of the international community. It was formally launched on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in September 2013.

◦ MIKTA has voiced a unified position and played a role as a mechanism of middle power countries when major issues have arisen, as demonstrated by its issuing joint statements last year on the North Korean issue; calling for securing safe navigation of civilian aircraft in the wake of the downing of a Malaysia Airlines flight; and calling for response to the threats of the Ebola virus and the promotion of global health.


* unofficial translation