RoK President to tour Southeast Asia

Hanoi (VNA) – President of the Republic of Korea Moon Jae-in is set to arrive in Indonesia on November 8, beginning his tour to three Southeast Asian nations for bilateral summits and regional forums, according to Yonhap News Agency.

The president is due in Jakarta later in the day for a three-day official visit. It will mark his first visit to a foreign country since taking office in May.

Moon and his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo are scheduled to hold a bilateral summit the following day to discuss boosting the two countries’ economic and trade relations, as well as their defence cooperation, with Indonesia currently the largest importer of RoK arms in Asia.

Before the summit, Moon plans to attend a joint business forum where he is expected to announce his New South Policy that seeks to improve diplomatic and economic ties between his country and Southeast Asia.

President Moon will then arrive in central Da Nang city of Vietnam on November 10 for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Week. He plans to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for the second time on the sidelines of the APEC meeting.

He will head to Manila, the Philippines on the final leg of his trip where he will join other 15 global leaders in the East Asia Summit. 

The president will later attend another regional forum hosted by ASEAN, the ASEAN Plus Three summit, involving all ten ASEAN member states and the leaders of the RoK, China and Japan.-VNA