RoK President Moon Jae-in and Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah inspect guard of honour (Source: yonhap) Hanoi (VNA) – The Republic of Korea (RoK) and Brunei have agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation as well as the former’s relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The consensus was reached during talks between visiting RoK President Moon Jae-in and Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah on March 11.
A press release from the Presidential Office Cheong Wa Dae stated that during the talks, Moon stressed that Brunei is an important partner of the RoK in its New Southern Policy.
The two leaders affirmed that the countries have steadily developed their friendly relations in the infrastructure and energy sectors over the past 35 years since they established diplomatic ties.
The two sides spoke highly of RoK businesses’ engagement in infrastructure projects in Brunei, saying such projects have made great contributions to the Southeast Asian nation’s economic development. They also agreed to continue cooperation for mutual development in the time to come.
The leaders held that over the past time, the two countries have stepped up collaboration in energy – a key industry of Brunei.
They consented to continue their support for businesses to further expand cooperation in building a LNG value chain spanning from gas mine development and transportation to sales.
The RoK imports over 1 million tonnes or about 4.3 percent of its LNG supply from Brunei annually.
Moon and Bolkiah also agreed to work together to promote bilateral cooperation in areas of intellectual property and science-technology while also increasing the countries' joint efforts to create new growth engines, according to the press release.
To help expand the number of visitors between the two countries, the leaders agreed to seek an increase in the number of direct flights.
President Moon arrived in Brunei on March 10. Brunei is the first leg of his tour of three Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia and Cambodia, to consolidate his commitment to further enhancing the relations between the RoK and ASEAN.-VNA
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