1. Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Yoon Soon-gu, together with Deputy Foreign Minister in charge of Asia-Pacific affairs Igor Morgulov of Russia, held the 17th Republic of Korea-Russia policy consultation in Seoul on November 27. In the meeting, the two senior diplomats exchanged a wide range of views on ways to advance the relations and step up substantive cooperation between the two countries.

2. The two sides, citing the some 50% increase in the two-way trade volume in January-September 2017 from the same period in 2016 and the record-breaking number of people-to-people exchanges, took note of the rapid advancement of the ROK-Russia relations; and voiced hope that the two countries will remain highly cooperative with each other in 2018, the tenth anniversary of the ROK-Russia declaration on strategic cooperative partnership.

° Deputy Minister Yoon particularly noted with appreciation that robust top-level exchanges, including the two rounds of summit talks since the launch of the new ROK government and the meeting between President Moon Jae-in and Prime Minister Medvedev held on the sidelines of the recent East Asia Summit (EAS), had helped build a political momentum for the advancement of the bilateral ties. He went on to express hope that further high-level exchanges will take place during the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in February and the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia in June.

※ The ROK-Russia top-level exchanges in 2017 were President Putin’s phone call to President Moon in May to offer the latter congratulations on his inauguration; the summit talks on the sidelines of the G20 Summit 2017 in Hamburg in July; the telephone conversation between the Presidents on North Korea’s sixth nuclear test and President Moon’s visit to Russia for the third Eastern Economic Forum in September; and the meeting between President Moon and Prime Minister Medvedev on the sidelines of the EAS in November.

° Deputy Minister Morgulov, sharing Deputy Minister Yoon’s view that since the launch of the new ROK government, a milestone has been created in the ROK-Russia relations for a new leap forward, proposed that based on the political commitment of the two countries’ leaders to develop the bilateral ties, the two sides work together to make a success of new cooperation projects, which had been discussed at the bilateral summit talks in September.

3. Deputy Minister Yoon suggested that the two governments put in full gear cooperation based on “the five proposed cooperative frameworks” and the “9-Bridges” strategy put forward by the ROK side at the summit talks in September; and focus on substantive cooperation projects that can produce tangible results.

※ The five proposed cooperative frameworks are a joint working group on the proposed ROK-Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) FTA; an initiative for financial cooperation in the Russian Far East; a committee on northern economic cooperation; a forum on cooperation between ROK and Russian provinces; and an assistance center for Korean investors and other systems designed to expedite the entry of Korean companies into Russia.

※ The 9-Bridges are gas, railways, ports, electricity, Arctic routes, shipbuilding, jobs, agriculture and fisheries.

° Deputy Minister Morgulov, saying that the Russian government stands ready to work with the ROK in implementing the ROK-proposed “9-Bridges” strategy, voiced hope that legal and institutional foundations in various sectors will be bolstered as a way to achieve what the two countries had agreed to at the bilateral summit talks.

4. Toward the end of the consultation, the two Deputy Ministers signed "a plan of exchanges between the ROK and Russian Foreign Ministries for the years 2017 and 2018," which calls for holding strategic dialogue and other high-level exchanges; holding meetings between the head and the deputy head delegates to the Six-Party Talks; and consulting with each other on security, consular and promotional affairs as well as major international issues.

※ The ROK and Russian Foreign Ministries have adopted the plan of exchanges on an biennial basis since 2006.

5. The policy consultation on November 27, the first high-level consultation between the ROK and Russian Foreign Ministries since the bilateral summit talks in September, served as an opportunity to review the progress in the “9-Bridges” strategy and other follow-up measures for substantive cooperation, and to accelerate inter-governmental cooperation.


* unofficial translation