Mr. Moon Dae-sung, President of the International Sports Relations Foundation,

Mr. Ser Miang Ng, Vice-President of the IOC Executive Board, and other honorable members of the IOC,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,  

It is indeed a great pleasure for me to be here with you at this wonderful dinner this evening. First of all, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to President Moon of the ISRF for hosting this timely event on sports relations in East Asia. I would also like to warmly welcome our distinguished foreign guests, especially my old friend Mr. Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., to whom I owed very much in fulfilling my duties as Korean Ambassador to Spain back in 2008 through 2011.  

Distinguished guests,  

Professor Joseph Nye famously defined soft power as the ‘ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments’. Sports is no doubt a prime example of soft power. And now sports diplomacy is all the rage across the globe.  

As UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon once said, “sports is a language every one of us can speak.” Indeed anyone can enjoy sports with others transcending differences in language and nationality. Sports can generate and spread a kind of cosmopolitanism throughout the world. 

Moreover, sports is righteous as it provides an equal opportunity to everyone as connoted by the saying, “the ball is round.” The rule of law is applied in all kinds of sports games, even if they are played in non-democratic countries.  

In addition, sports is more popular than any other human activity. People across the globe are easily captivated by sports. The Inuit, native inhabitants in the Arctic, and the refugees in Africa all go wild when watching the World Cup.  

The very nature of sports -- cosmopolitanism, equality, righteousness and popularity-- contributes to building a sense of belonging and kinship among the people. I vividly remember the day when the Spaniards became one after winning the Euro Cup back in 2008. Having experienced the exactly same feeling in the 2002 World Cup, it was exhilarating for me to see how a sports game unites the people of one nation and all of Europe.  

As I understand it, the message the FIFA is sending out to the world is that through football we can break down social barriers and promote tolerance and cooperation worldwide. Indeed the universal passion for sports can be used as a means to transcend social and cultural differences and bring people together. And this is what sports diplomacy is all about.  

Distinguished Guests,  

History illustrates how states have successfully employed sports to reduce tension and resolve inter-state conflicts. The ancient Olympic Games, ‘Ping-Pong diplomacy’ between the US and China in 1971 and the ‘Cricket diplomacy’ between India and Pakistan in 2011 are only a few examples. The 1988 Seoul Olympics also contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall the following year, as all countries from both east and west participated in the games.  

States have at times misused sports as a means to promote extreme nationalism, especially in the period between the two World Wars and during the Cold War. However, in the post-Cold War era, sports played a role that traditional and hard politics failed to accomplish and thereby contributed to détente between east and west.  

The benefits of sports do not stop there. We have witnessed how countries have used sporting events as a way to enhance their national image both locally and globally. For instance, China used the 2008 Beijing Olympics to promote its image as a modern, economic powerhouse. The South Africa World Cup in 2010 showcased the dynamic potential of Africa. Now the world will turn their eyes to see how Brazil will draw on the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics to reinforce its image as a regional leader.  

Star athletes as well possess the ability to enhance their national image by capturing the hearts and minds of the people in different parts of the world. Didier Drogba, an Ivorian football player who played for Chelsea, won the devotion of not only his people but the British as well. He was even voted by Chelsea supporters as the club's greatest ever player. The Polish, Turkish and Korean athletes in the German Bundesliga are also loved by the Germans. And we cannot leave out Guus Hiddink, who miraculously took the Korean football team to a fourth place finish at the 2002 World Cup. This sparked a significant increase of Korean tourists to the Netherlands -- the home country of Hiddink.  

Let us now turn our eyes to East Asia. Obviously the region has grown to become a host of major sporting events, most notably the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. This goes to show the growing importance of the region in world sports.  

However, there is a lot for the region’s sports diplomacy yet to do, especially in terms of contributing to regional peace and stability. Despite the growing economic interdependence among nations in the region, mistrust and tension prevail in the political and security area, especially over historical and territorial issues. This is often referred to as the “Asia Paradox.” I believe sports diplomacy can play a constructive role in overcoming this paradox by bringing the people in the region together and promoting a culture of mutual understanding.  

In fact, a number of regional sporting events greatly contributed to forming the Asian solidarity in the past. Football and basketball regional tournaments in the 1960s and 1970s used to be quite popular among Asian fans. I myself spent my childhood enjoying all of these regional sporting events. Unfortunately, however, it appears that Asians are rapidly losing interest in such regional games. Perhaps globalization combined with commercialism is the root cause of this phenomenon. But I don’t believe that this is a development heading in the right direction. Nor is it desirable for the overall health of global sports development. I do hope that one day regional tournaments such as the Asian Cup or the East Asian Cup becomes like the Euro Cup, Copa America or Africa Nations Cup, uniting the people of the region and reaching out together to other parts of the world. The so-called “glocalization” is a key to the success of our joint efforts to this end.  

We must also nurture a culture of promoting Asian solidarity by wholeheartedly supporting and taking pride in regional star athletes such as Yuna Kim, Sūn Yáng, Li Ning and Darvish Yu. The Olympics gold medalist in pole vault, Isinbaeva, is the Peace and Sports Ambassador to eradicate poverty, while Yuna Kim and David Beckam are advocating children’s rights as UNICEF Ambassadors. I hope that a greater number of athletes from East Asia can earn the respect of the people of Asia and beyond by engaging more in such humanitarian activities.  

There are stories where even average athletes, who have not risen to stardom, are sharing their goodwill with the world. For instance, a former Korean footballer Kim Shin-hwan became a football manager in East Timor after watching children there playing football barefoot.  

Mr. Kim contributed to healing the pains of the Timorese by teaching children how to cooperate and develop self-confidence while playing football. In a period of just one year, the East Timor’s youth football team won the 2004 International Youth Football Tournament.  

This miraculous achievement was made into a movie ‘A Barefoot Dream’ and has inspired millions of people. Mr. Kim was not a star athlete, but he instilled hope and dreams to the children of East Timor.  

Distinguished Guests,  

Renaissance of regional sports in East Asia will inspire a greater sense of community among the Asian people. This will foster cooperation and trust among nations in the region, further promoting peace and stability as well as reinforcing the ongoing process of regional integration. I hope that a strong message to uphold this vision will sprout from the discussions at this forum and create a new momentum to further activate the regional sporting events in East Asia.  

We in Korea will fully utilize sports as a significant tool for realizing the vision of President Park Geun-hye, a vision for a happier Korean peninsula, a happier East Asia and a happier global community. I hope that we can benefit from your wisdom and advice in our journey toward this end.  

Thank you very much.