ASEAN

Seoul woos ASEAN for G20 support

ASEANโ€™s concerns about the global financial crisis will be a key issue on the agenda at the upcoming G20 summit in Seoul, with the regional bloc increasingly seen as promising recovery pool for the world economy.

A top South Korean official visited the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta last week to seek the engagement of the grouping, which has a combined GDP of US$1.5 trillion, at the G20 forum to be held from Nov. 11 to 12.

The G20 is the grouping of worldโ€™s 20 largest economies.

South Koreaโ€™s secretary-general of the Presidential Committee for the G20 Summit, Rhee Changyong, said his country sought to bring the perspective of emerging markets to the G20 summit, with a focus on the โ€œnew agenda that included global financial safety nets and development issuesโ€.

The trip to the ASEAN Secretariat is the first overseas outreach visit by Rhee to promote the G20 agenda.

Developing countries have sought to gauge their powers in global financial institutions of World Bank and

International Monetary Fund (IMF) during previous summit in London and Pittsburgh in 2009. This year will also see the G20 convene twice โ€” first in Toronto from June 26 to 27, and then in Seoul.

Rhee said the World Bank reform would be the main topic at the Toronto meeting, while the Seoul summit was aimed at concrete decisions on the IMFโ€™s reform.

Lee Seung-buhm, the first secretary of the South Korean Embassy in Jakarta, said Seoul would play a

bridging role between developed and developing countries at the summit, as South Korea would be the first Asian country and the first non-G8 country to host the G20. โ€œDecades ago, South Korea was a developing nation, and now it is a developed country,โ€ he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

โ€œIt represents the futures sought by many Asian nations. South Korea sees its capability to help reduce the gap [to reach consensus] among members on issues from financial institution reform to balanced growth.

โ€œThe G20 will be the biggest foreign policy agenda in Seoul this year,โ€ he added.

Indonesia is the only member of ASEAN in the G20. The blocโ€™s state chairman and its secretary-general have previously been invited as observers at G20 summits.

South Korea has increasingly put ASEAN toward the fore of its major foreign policy portfolio, behind its preoccupation with North Koreaโ€™s nuclear ambitions and relations with major powers the United States, Russia, Japan and China.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, in his visit to Jakarta last March, announced a โ€œNew Asia Initiativeโ€ policy, spearheading Seoulโ€™s foreign policy course to draw closer to ASEAN and its combined population of more than half a billion people.

โ€œIndonesia and South Korea are both middle-power countries,โ€ said Tirta Nugraha Mursitama, from the University of Indonesiaโ€™s School of International Relations.

โ€œThey are expected to be able to balance the political tensions in East Asia amid the rivalry between Japan and China to lead the region.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/02/19/seoul-woos-asean-g20-support.html

Mail from: Ms. Wahyuningrum (Yuyun)

By: Lilian Budianto, The Jakarta Post
When: 7/2/2014

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