Yoon aims to elevate ties on Southeast Asian trip

President Yoon Suk Yeol is poised to visit Laos for the South Korea-ASEAN summit in Vientiane, Laos, on Oct. 10, with both sides working to upgrade ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the highest level in ASEAN's diplomatic hierarchy.

Laos will be one of the three Southeast Asian nations Yoon plans to visit next week, along with the Philippines and Singapore.

This year's summit between South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will mark a watershed moment, Kim Tae-hyo, first deputy director of the presidential National Security Office, said in a press briefing in Seoul on Thursday.

"The relations between South Korea and ASEAN will be taken to the next level," Kim said.

Yoon proposed to elevate the partnership at his first ASEAN summit in May 2022. At the same event, Yoon laid out the Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative, aimed at doubling Seoul's contribution to three regional cooperation funds in Southeast Asian countries within five years.

ASEAN has inked Comprehensive Strategic Partnerships with Australia, China, the United States, India and Japan. South Korea and the ASEAN maintained the Strategic Partnership since 2010.

Kim added the elevated partnership would enhance cooperation between South Korea and ASEAN in politics, security, trade and investment, stimulate exchanges, and seek multilayered responses to cybersecurity threats, digital transformation and climate change.

South Korea's exports in the first three quarters to the ASEAN member countries -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- came to $84.6 billion, up 6.6 percent year-on-year. The figure represents about 17 percent of all South Korean exports.

Yoon will also participate in the ASEAN Plus Three Summit in Laos on Oct. 10, which brings together leaders from the 10 ASEAN member states, China, Japan, and South Korea.

Yoon is set to "take the lead in strengthening cooperation between ASEAN and the three countries," Kim said, capitalizing on the momentum from the trilateral summit held in May with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and then-Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida --the first such meeting in over four years.

Building on the restored trilateral cooperation mechanism, Yoon is expected to propose concrete measures to further enhance collaboration between ASEAN, South Korea, China, and Japan at this year’s ASEAN Plus Three Summit, Kim added.

Yoon is anticipating one-on-one talks with Japan's newly appointed Prime Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, who took office Tuesday. If confirmed, next week's talks would mark Yoon's first meeting with Japan's new leader following the country's transition of power.

According to a source from the presidential office on condition of anonymity, Seoul is in talks with its counterpart in Japan over the bilateral meeting of Yoon and Ishiba, but added that Ishiba's visit to Laos has yet to be confirmed.

Yoon previously met with Ishiba's predecessor, Kishida, 12 times between March 2023 and September, marking a notable shift in bilateral relations that had long been strained by historical and territorial disputes. This frequent engagement, bypassing formal diplomatic protocols, has been hailed by Seoul as the "revival of shuttle diplomacy" and seen as a vital step toward strengthening trilateral cooperation among South Korea, the US and Japan.

However, the unnamed official clarified that Seoul does not anticipate a bilateral meeting between Yoon and China's Premier Li Qiang in Laos, nor a separate trilateral meeting between South Korea, Japan, and China on the sidelines of the ASEAN-related summit.

On Oct. 11, Yoon will attend the East Asia Summit to represent South Korea, one of the 18 member countries including Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia and the United States.

Yoon's visit to Vientiane for the ASEAN summit will be preceded by his state visit to the Philippines and Singapore.

Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee will fly to Manila, the Philippines Sunday for talks with Filipine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday. Yoon is also scheduled to meet Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam, its Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and former prime minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday.

Representatives of some 40 companies will accompany Yoon's visit to Manila and Singapore, according to Yoon's office.