The 13 th ASEAN-Republic of Korea Summit took place in Hanoi on October 29 to review and map out future directions for the ASEAN-RoK Dialogue Partnership and exchange views on regional and international issues of common concern.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung chaired the summit, in the presence of RoK President Lee Myung Bak and other ASEAN leaders.

He stressed that ASEAN attaches a lot of importance to enhancing relations with the RoK on both bilateral and multilateral issues in order to bring ties to a new height.

He expressed his support for the initiative to develop ASEAN-RoK ties from a “comprehensive partnership” to “strategic partnership”.

Lao PM Buasone Bouphavanh, as Country Coordinator, shared with his counterparts the recent developments in ASEAN-RoK relations.

The ASEAN leaders were pleased to note the fine developments and fruitful cooperation between ASEAN and the RoK after more than two decades of relations.

They welcomed the RoK’s “Initiative of a new Asia”, in which cooperation with ASEAN is identified as priority. To meet the increasing demand for cooperation and to further promote and step up the relationship between ASEAN and the RoK, they agreed to uplift the ASEAN-RoK relations to a strategic partnership and adopt a joint statement on a Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity.

The ASEAN leaders were satisfied with the effective implementation of the Plan of Action to Implement the Joint Declaration on Comprehensive Cooperation Partnership (2006-2010) and adopted a Plan of Action for the next period (2011-2015).

On trade and economic cooperation, ASEAN and the RoK agreed to accelerate realisation of all agreements within the framework of the ASEAN-Korea Free Trade Area (AKFTA) and renewed their commitment to achieve the target of increasing two-way trade to 150 billion USD by 2015.

ASEAN’s leaders praised the RoK’s continued support for ASEAN’s efforts in community building and narrowing the development gap, as well as the positive achievements in priority areas such as culture and arts, tourism, people-to-people contact, development of small and medium enterprises, information and communications technology, education, disaster management, environment, climate change, infectious diseases and food security.

They also welcomed the RoK’s Initiative on Low-Carbon Green Growth to respond to climate change for sustainable development.

Regarding regional and international issues of common concern, ASEAN reaffirmed its support for dialogue and cooperation for peace, security and stability, as well as encouraging efforts to resume the Six Party Talks for the denuclearisation on the Korean Peninsula.

ASEAN welcomed the RoK holding the G-20 Chair and appreciated the RoK’s invitation for the ASEAN Chair to attend the G-20 Summit in Seoul this November. The two sides also discussed ASEAN’s participation and contribution to this Summit.

Concluding the Summit, the chairman of the 13 th ASEAN-RoK Summit issued a chairman’s statement on the outcomes and the decisions made at the Summit./.