LISBON (Yonhap News) -- Park Geun-hye, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s special envoy, arrived in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, Sunday on her second leg of a nine-day European tour after wrapping up a three-day visit to the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands, Park, a former head of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), met with Queen Beatrix and ranking government officials for discussions on enhancing the relationship between the two countries, her aides said.
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Park Geun-hye, former chairwoman of the ruling Grand national Party walks to a tree-planting event on a park in the Netherlands on Saturday (Yonhap News) |
Park delivered President Lee’s letter to Queen Beatrix and asked for her support for South Korean alpine city PyeongChang’s ongoing bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics, said the aides.
“In the meeting with Park, the Dutch queen said her Crown Prince Willem-Alexander traveled to South Korea in his capacity as a member of the IOC and has a good impression of PyeongChang,” an aide for Park said.
In particular, the Dutch queen and Park shared the view that the two countries have abundant opportunities to boost bilateral cooperation in the agricultural fields, according to the aide.
“I have deep interest in the agricultural sector. There are a lot of things we can learn from the Netherlands, as the (European) country is advanced in agricultural research and development and its agricultural industry is of large size,” Park said in a meeting with reporters in the Hague.
“Creative thinking is the hope for Korea‘s agricultural sector.”
Following her trip to Portugal, Park will visit Greece.
All three nations mark the 50th anniversary of their relations with South Korea this year.
It is the third time for the four-term lawmaker, considered a front runner for next year’s presidential election, to serve as Lee’s special envoy. The 59-year-old was a rival of Lee ahead of the 2007 presidential election and is leading a faction loyal to her within the GNP.
