Foreign Minister Song Min-soon attended the first High-level Meeting of the Alliance of Civilizations (AoC) Annual Forum held in Madrid, Spain, on January 15 and 16. Korea is a member of the 'Group of Friends' which consists of governments and multilateral organizations that support the efforts of the Alliance of Civilizations. 

In the statement he delivered on January 15, Minister Song stressed the need to solidify a partnership among the participating countries of the AoC to cope with conflicts among civilizations that occur with the progress of globalization. He also expressed Korea’s willingness to contribute to the AoC based on its experience of participating in the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) and on its efforts to become a mature democracy. He stressed that Korea will contribute to narrowing digital divide by expanding assistance to developing countries in the area of information and communication technology (ICT) and to bridging cross-cultural gap of misunderstanding.

The 1st AoC Annual Forum was attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, High Representative for the AoC Jorge Sampaio and high-level officials from 67 countries including heads of governments and foreign ministers of about 30 countries, along with representatives from 13 international organizations. The participants confirmed their political will and commitments to the AoC and agreed to launch this year’s major projects, including revitalizations of the Global Youth Employment Center and the Media Fund.

The Alliance of Civilizations(AoC)aims to improve understanding and cooperative relations among nations and peoples across cultures and religions and, in the process of, to help counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism.It was established in 2005, at the initiative of the Governments of Spain and Turkey, under the auspices of the United Nations. In April 2007, the United Nations Secretary-General appointed Jorge Sampaio, former President of Portugal, as High Representative for the Alliance. The AoC is supported by a Group of Friends- a community of over 75 countries and international organizations and bodies.

On the sidelines of the Forum, Minister Song Min-soon met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on January 16. In his meeting with the Secretary-General over breakfast, Minister Song recognized success and progress in the issues Secretary-General Ban has been focusing on since his inauguration, including the issue of Darfur in Sudan, climate change, Middle East peace talks, and the reform of the UN Secretariat. Expressing high hopes for Secretary-General Ban to achieve greater success this year, Minister Song pledged full cooperation of the Korean government. He explained the efforts of the Korean government to make contributions to the international community that correspond with Korea’s status on the global stage. To this end, Minister Song stressed that the Korean government is putting greater emphasis than ever on Korea’s active participation in the UN peacekeeping operations (PKO) and on the increase of official development assistance (ODA). He further elaborated that the Korean government was making efforts to pass a bill on UN PKO in the National Assembly which will enable rapid deployment of Korean troops for UN PKOs.

  Secretary-General Ban welcomed the efforts of the Korean government to increase its contributions to the international community, and hoped that a legal basis would be laid to promote Korea's participation in the UN PKO by passing the PKO bill in the National Assembly. He also expressed hopes that the Korean government would continue to render its contributions and assistance to the UN in terms of national policies.