President Yoon holds bilateral meetings with leaders of Pacific Islands

President Yoon Suk Yeol held a series of bilateral meetings with leaders of Pacific Islands in Seoul Sunday ahead of the inaugural Korea-Pacific Islands Summit set to kick off on Monday, aimed at broadening diplomacy in the region.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, holds a bilateral summit with Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Minister James Marape at the presidential office in Yongsan, central Seoul, Sunday, ahead of the inaugural Korea-Pacific Islands Summit set to kick off on Monday. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

President Yoon Suk Yeol held a series of bilateral meetings with leaders of Pacific Islands in Seoul Sunday ahead of the inaugural Korea-Pacific Islands Summit set to kick off on Monday, aimed at broadening diplomacy in the region.

The two-day event is the first in-person multilateral summit hosted by the Yoon government since it launched one year ago and brings together leaders and senior officials of the 18 members of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).

The PIF is an intergovernmental body dating back to 1971 aimed at enhancing cooperation among Pacific Island countries and territories, and Korea is one of the regional bloc's 21 dialogue partners.

The members are: Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Tonga, Palau, Niue, Nauru, Kiribati, the Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa, the Cook Islands, Australia, New Zealand, French Polynesia and New Caledonia.

On Sunday afternoon, Yoon held bilateral summits with Kiribati's President Taneti Maamau, Tonga's Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni, Tuvalu's Prime Minister Kausea Natano, Vanuatu's Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau and Papua New Guinea's Prime Minister James Marape at the Yongsan presidential office.

The theme of the first summit is: "Navigating towards Co-Prosperity: Strengthening Cooperation with the Blue Pacific."

It comes as Korea pledged to expand cooperation with Pacific Islands as a part of its new Indo-Pacific strategy announced last December and ambitions to become a global pivotal state.

The Pacific region is emerging as a new area of strategic competition amid rising U.S.-China rivalry.

Korea has stressed it will strengthen collaboration to address the needs of the Pacific Islands to support the implementation of the PIF's long-term development strategy, the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.

The islands are referred to as the Blue Pacific Continent because of their massive exclusive economic zones, which are rich in marine produce and deep-sea mineral resources.

The area is vulnerable to rising sea levels and natural disasters related to climate change, another area for potential cooperation with Korea, according to Seoul officials.

On Monday, Yoon will host the first session discussing current and future cooperation between Korea and Pacific island nations.

The second session will be led by the Cook Islands, the PIF chair, and discuss the regional situation as well as international cooperation, including Busan's bid to host the 2030 World Expo.

Yoon and first lady Kim Keon-hee will host an official dinner for the leaders on Monday evening.

On Tuesday, the leaders will travel to Busan to visit the potential venue of the World Expo 2030.

The PIF leaders' spouses will join in a separate program led by Kim.

"Expressing our willingness to actively contribute to the Pacific Island countries through this summit will serve as an opportunity to expand our diplomatic horizons in the Pacific and strengthen our contributions toward responsible diplomacy," presidential spokesman Lee Do-woon said in a statement on the upcoming summit.

At a Korea-Pacific Islands foreign ministers' meeting in 2021, an agreement was reached to elevate the ministerial dialogue mechanism, which dates back to 2011, to the summit level.

"This summit is meaningful as it is the first summit in Korea since the inauguration of the new government, inviting the leaders of various countries," said a Foreign Ministry official. "It will be a significant first step toward implementing our Indo-Pacific strategy in earnest."

Other countries that have held separate summits with Pacific Island countries are the United States, Japan, France, China and India.

The United States, along with allies Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, launched Partners in the Blue Pacific, an informal cooperative body to strengthen economic and diplomatic ties with Pacific Island countries in June 2022. Korea joined the U.S.-led initiative last November.

Cooperation with the PIF is an issue that has come up in trilateral talks between Korea, Japan and the United States.

Earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden canceled what would have been a historic visit to Papua New Guinea to meet with Pacific Island leaders following his trip to Hiroshima for the Group of 7 Summit because of debt-ceiling negotiations in Washington.

A sign at the Incheon International Airport Terminal 1 on Sunday announces that security screening measures are enhanced ahead of the inaugural Korea-Pacific Islands Summit to be held over Monday and Tuesday. [YONHAP]

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]