President Lee Myung-bak attended the 12th ASEAN-ROK Summit held in Dusit Thani Hua Hin Hotel on Saturday, October 24. President Lee and the leaders of 10 ASEAN countries discussed ways to further improve Korea-ASEAN relations.

President Lee pointed out that Korea-ASEAN relations had been showing progress in political, social, economic and cultural sectors over recent years. The President especially praised several achievements made this year such as the establishment of the Korea-ASEAN Center on March 13, the signing of the Korea-ASEAN investment treaty on June 2 and the ASEAN-Korea Commemorative Summit on June 1 and 2.
The Commemorative Summit, which took place on Korea's Jeju-do (Jeju Island), is known to have laid a cornerstone for a more systematic development of relations between Korea and the ASEAN countries. 

As announced back at the ASEAN-Korea Commemorative Summit, President Lee pledged to scale up Korea's official development assistance (ODA) to twice the amount of that extended in 2008 by the year 2015.

In low carbon green growth, Korea has selected water management, low carbon cities, low carbon energy, forestry, biomass and waste disposal as the six main areas for assistance to ASEAN countries. In the area of climate change, Korea also plans to pursue a Korea-ASEAN green partnership from 2010.

To further intensify cultural exchanges the Korean government plans to open three more Korea Culture Centers in the ASEAN region: Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia. The ASEAN leaders expressed gratitude and President Lee thanked them in return for their active support.

The leaders agreed to maintain close ties to continue to carry out the pledges made in the joint statement at the Commemorative Summit in Jeju-do. Following the conclusion of the meeting, a Chairman's Statement was issued by the Chair of the 12th ASEAN-ROK Summit.