South Korea for talks with Sweden, Finland
South Korea’s top diplomat had one-on-one talks on bilateral relations, the war between Russia and Ukraine and affairs on the Korean peninsula, with its Swedish and Finnish counterparts in Brussels, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong is visiting there to attend a meeting with the Foreign Ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He is the first South Korean foreign minister to join such a high-profile NATO session, as the country has been invited as an Asia-Pacific partner to the multilateral alliance.
In Chung’s talks with Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde on Wednesday (local time), the two sides agreed to expand the essential cooperation to areas such as information and communication technology (ICT) and startups, the news agency Yonhap reported.
Chung then met with Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto and agreed to continue broadening partnerships in startups, the defense industry and the environment sector.
Haavisto expressed hope for an early launch of direct flights between Helsinki and South Korea’s port city of Busan, which has been delayed due to the Covid pandemic, the ministry added.
Mr Chung also briefed Swedish and Finnish ministers on the security situation in Korea, and reaffirmed their support for Seoul’s efforts to resume dialogue involving Pyongyang. They also exchanged views on the Ukraine issue.