Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan took part in a series of ASEAN-related meetings in Phuket, Thailandon July 22-23.

On July 22, Foreign Minister Yu attended the ASEAN+3 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and the EAS Foreign Ministers’Meeting in the morning followed by the ROK-ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in the afternoon.
        
In the ASEAN+3 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and EAS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Foreign Minister Yu and his counterparts voiced concern over North Korea’s nuclear test and missile launches and urged North Korea to comply with relevant UN resolutions and Six-party agreements as well as return to the Six-party Talks.

With regard to financial cooperation, the 13 Foreign Ministers of ASEAN+3positively viewed the agreement recently drawn to expand the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization(CMIM) Fund from the initial US $80 billion to US $120 billion and agreed to continue making joint efforts to implement the agreement before the end of 2009.

At the EAS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan reaffirmed that Korea, as one of next year’s G20 co-chairs, is committed to helping overcome the global economic and financial crisis. Foreign Ministers from the ten ASEAN member states, Japan, China, Australia, India, and New Zealand underscored the importance of implementing the agreements reached at the G20 Summit held in Londonin April, 2009.

The EAS Foreign Ministers stressed the need to strengthen cooperation on the regional level in the fields of climate change, disaster management, tackling the New Influenza and education.

In the ROK-ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting co-chaired by Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and Anifah Aman, his counterpart from Malaysia, the ASEAN coordinator, the two sides reviewed major achievements attained this year including the inauguration of the Korea-ASEAN Center andconclusion of the ROK-ASEAN FTA and shared the view to further expand bilateral cooperation in a wide range of fields based on such accomplishments.

After extending appreciation to Koreafor expanding the ROK-ASEAN Cooperation Fund and official development assistance, supporting the Initiative for ASEAN Integration, pursuing the East Asia Climate Partnership and other contributions, ASEAN expressed hope for boosted cooperation in the future.

Minister Yu expressed his appreciation to the Malaysian side for its contributions to the development of bilateral relations as the ROK-ASEAN Coordinator during the last three years. He voicedexpectations for continued development of bilateral relations under close collaboration with Laos, the Coordinator for the next three years.

In the ASEAN Regional Forum on July 23, almost all participants other than North Korea condemned North Korea’s recent nuclear test and missile launches.  They also urged all members of the UN to fully implement the UN Security Council Resolution 1874.

The Foreign Ministers welcomed Vietnam as the Chair of the 17th ARF whose term begins on January 1, 2010.