1. On the occasion of the Bled Strategic Forum on August 28, Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin held a series of bilateral meetings with participants from five Central and East European and Balkan countries*. In his meetings with the four Foreign Ministers and a courtesy call on the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Park requested support for Korea’s bid to host the World Expo in Busan and discussed the ways forward for advancing bilateral relations.

* Korea-Armenia Foreign Ministers’ meeting, Korea-North Macedonia Foreign Ministers’ meeting, courtesy call on the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Korea-Slovakia Foreign Ministers’ meeting, Korea-Switzerland Foreign Ministers’ meeting

2. In the meetings, Foreign Minister Park explained that Busan is the best candidate for hosting the World Expo, and actively asked to support Korea’s bid to host the event, considering that Korea has enough capabilities to host the World Expo. The Prime Minister and the Foreign Ministers of the five Central and East European countries highly recognized Busan’s capability to host the event, adding that they will seriously consider Busan’s candidacy. On the occasion of the opening ceremony, Foreign Minister Park also contacted President of Greece Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Prime Minister of Montenegro Dritan Abazović, Prime Minister of Serbia Ana Brnabic, and Prime Minister of Croatia Andrej Plenković, and requested their support for Busan’s bid for the World Expo.

3. First, Foreign Minister Park met with Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, and agreed to continue to actively seek concrete ways for cooperation in a range of areas, including nuclear power plants, IT, science and technology, tourism, and development cooperation.

4. Subsequently, Foreign Minister Park had the first Foreign Ministers’ meeting with his North Macedonian counterpart Bujar Osmani since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2019. In the meeting, the two sides discussed ways to promote bilateral investment and Korea’s investment in North Macedonia, and agreed to work together to strengthen security cooperation at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

5. Foreign Minister Park paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister of Bulgaria Nikolai Denkov, in which the two sides appreciated that Korea and Bulgaria have continued to deepen their Comprehensive and Future-oriented Partnership and agreed to expand trade and investment cooperation, with a focus on AI, batteries, energy, automobile components, agriculture, and logistics.

6. In addition, Foreign Minister Park and Slovak Foreign Minister Miroslav Wlachovský highly appreciated that bilateral trade hit record high in 2022 and around 130 Korean companies are doing business in Slovakia, contributing to the economic development of the country. Foreign Minister Park also hoped to expand bilateral cooperation into other areas, such as defense, the defense industry, and nuclear power plants.

7. In the meeting between Foreign Minister Park and Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, the two sides took note that active high-level exchanges are taking place this year, which marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the 70th anniversary of Switzerland’s participation in the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission. Foreign Minister Park expressed hope to continue stepping up cooperation in basic and applied sciences with Switzerland, which possesses outstanding capabilities in the fields. Foreign Minister Cassis agreed with this, and further suggested that the two countries continue working together as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council in 2024.

8. Besides, Foreign Minister Park had a pull-aside meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, in which the two sides appreciated active high-level exchanges between the two countries, with this year marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. They also reviewed the progress in the implementation of follow-up measures discussed at the bilateral summit in May this year, including the Korea-Canada high-level 2+2 economic security dialogue, a Memorandum of Understanding on youth exchange, and a Memorandum of Understanding on critical mineral supply chains, and agreed to continue enhancing cooperation in economic security, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and supply chains.

9. In this series of meetings, Foreign Minister Park explained North Korea’s continued provocations and serious human rights violations, and the counterpart countries reaffirmed their support for the Yoon Suk Yeol government’s Audacious Initiative.