(3rd LD) S. Korean president vows support, cooperation for Asia

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead paras; UPDATES with outcome of ASEAN+3 summit,
additional information)
By Byun Duk-kun
HUA HIN, Thailand, Oct. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak vowed
Saturday to increase his country's contribution in Asia, agreeing to work toward
establishment of a strategic partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN).
The strategic partnership was recommended in a report from a research group,
adopted by the leaders at a Korea-ASEAN summit held in this eastern Thai resort
city of Hua Hin.
"President Lee and the 10 leaders of ASEAN exchanged their views on ways to
improve the Korea-ASEAN relations," Lee's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said
in a press release.
A strategic partnership between South Korea and ASEAN will significantly boost
their diplomatic ties in tandem with their economic cooperation, enhanced in June
when the sides signed a free trade deal on investment, Cheong Wa Dae said.
Korea and ASEAN established a comprehensive cooperation partnership in 2004.
At the summit, Lee reconfirmed South Korea's plan to more than double its
official development aid (ODA) to ASEAN by 2015 over 2008 while increasing its
loans from the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) to the region.
"South Korea is greatly interested in narrowing the development gap between
countries in Asia. South Korea will significantly expand its ODA and EDCF and
humbly share with ASEAN countries its development experience that allowed it to
grow so rapidly over the past decades," President Lee said at the summit,
according to the press statement.
Efforts are also underway to direct half of US$200 million Seoul has promised to
offer to Asia under its East Asia Climate Partnership fund to the countries in
this region, Cheong Wa Dae spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye said.
Lee also expressed hope to host the "conference on the viable city," which was
proposed at the summit by Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, she told
reporters.
The South Korean leader arrived here Friday following his visits to Vietnam and
Cambodia, both members of ASEAN. The other members are Brunei, Indonesia, Laos,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and the Philippines.
The three-nation trip, along with Lee's bilateral and multilateral summits with
ASEAN, sought to improve South Korea's diplomatic relations with the countries
under its "New Asia Initiative."
Lee and ASEAN leaders first met in June when he hosted a special summit on South
Korea's southern resort island of Jeju.
In Hanoi earlier this week, the South Korean president and his Vietnamese
counterpart Nguyen Minh Triet agreed to forge a "strategic cooperative
partnership" between the countries, the third of its kind for South Korea and
fourth for Vietnam.
In a separate summit Saturday that also involved the leaders of Japan and China,
Lee said he will look for ways to invite Vietnam, ASEAN's chair for 2010, to G-20
economic summits to be held in Canada and South Korea next year.
"Cooperation within the Asian region is crucial to overcoming the global economic
crisis. As the chair of the G-20 summit next year, South Korea will work with
great responsibilities to promote the mutual views of ASEAN Plus Three
countries," Lee was quoted by the spokeswoman as saying
Lee also announced Seoul's plan to contribute 150,000 tons of rice to a food
reserve program run by the ASEAN Plus Three.
"The trip to Southeast Asia helped expand the ground for our new Asia diplomacy.
Strengthening of the country's ties with ASEAN is at the center of our New Asia
Initiative that is a key foreign policy of the Lee Myung-bak administration," the
spokeswoman, Kim, said.
Lee will return home later Sunday after attending the annual East Asia Summit the
same day. The summit involves the leaders of ASEAN Plus Three, India, Australia
and New Zealand.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)