ASEAN Secretary General Le Luong Minh has visited the Republic of Korea (RoK) to further push bilateral ties in the future.

The October 8-12 visit was part of the activities in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the ASEAN-RoK Dialogue Relations (1989-2014).

During his stay, the ASEAN leader paid a courtesy call to RoK President Park Geun-hye and met with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs; Trade, Industry and Energy; Culture, Sport and Tourism; and Forest Service among other high-ranking officials from the ASEAN-Korea Centre, the Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat, and ASEAN Seoul Committee (ASC).

Minh and the RoK officials discussed a wide range of issues pertaining to ASEAN-RoK relations, while also exchanging views on regional and international issues of mutual interest and concern.

They expressed their satisfaction with the strong development of bilateral relations over the past years in all fields and acknowledged that there is still a vast potential for both sides to further enhance their partnership and cooperation in the future.

The RoK side reaffirmed its strong commitment to further promoting the partnership with ASEAN, saying that it supports ASEAN’s central role in regional mechanisms as well as the building of the ASEAN Community by 2015 and the community’s Post-2015 Vision.

It said it attaches the great importance to the ASEAN-RoK Commemorative Summit, scheduled for December 11-12 in Busan.

Both sides vowed to work together to ensure the success of the summit, which is expected to elevate the bilateral partnership to a higher level.

Minh highly appreciated the RoK’s support for ASEAN efforts in narrowing development gap and promoting regional integration.

The two sides agreed to strengthen their links in forestry through the framework of the ASEAN-Korea Forestry Cooperation (AFoCo) Agreement, as well as bolster trade, investment and culture cooperation in the coming time.-VNA