The newly appointed Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Lesikimacuata Korovavala today received a courtesy call from the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea His Excellency Young-Kyu Park.
The meeting took place ahead of the official visit by the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, Hon. Jin-pyo Kim to Fiji this week.
Dr Korovavala thanked Ambassador Park for the discussions they had on further advancing the cooperation between the two nations.
He acknowledged the Government of the Republic of Korea’s contribution to Fiji’s socioeconomic development priorities implemented by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in priority areas such as climate change, disaster risk resilience, ocean conservation, economic cooperation, defence and security, and renewable energy.
On regional cooperation, Dr Korovavala said Fiji will work closely with Korea through the recently elevated Korea-Pacific Islands Leaders Summit held in Seoul, Korea in May 2023.
The first of such dialogue platform will spearhead Korea’s regional engagements.
In response, Ambassador Young-Kyu Park congratulated Dr Korovavala for his new appointment and also reaffirmed Republic of Korea’s commitment to work closely with the People’s Coalition Government.
He spoke on the Korean Government’s commitment to strengthen relations with Fiji and the Pacific region through the Indo-Pacific Strategy.
In addition, the Ambassador commended Fiji’s recent participation at the Korea-Pacific Islands Summit which resulted in the adoption of a Joint Declaration and Action Plan, to be implemented in harmony with the 2050 Strategy of Blue Pacific Continent.
This is an important milestone underpinning Korea and Pacific Island countries relations moving forward.
