Your Excellency, Athanasio Kosmas Sifaki, Ambassador of Panama, And fellow Ambassadors from Latin America and the Caribbean, Ladies and gentlemen,

Buenas tardes, Boa tarde,

I am pleased to welcome everyone here this afternoon.

I had the pleasure of speaking with some of you at the lecture series organized by the Korea National Diplomatic Academy last month.

But this is the first time I’m meeting with chiefs of mission from Latin America and the Caribbean as a group.

As a matter of fact, this is the first in a series of receptions dedicated to bringing together the Foreign Ministry leadership with each regional diplomatic corps.

It is fitting that we should start with Latin America and the Caribbean since - after all - the initiative was proposed by GRULAC.

In this regard, I wish to acknowledge Ambassador Kosmas’ role in putting forth this great idea.

During the 5 years he has spent here, he has been unstinting not only in promoting bilateral relations between Korea and Panama but also bringing Korea and Latin America closer together.
I am sure I speak for all of us when I say that you will be deeply missed.
I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors.

Excellencies,
Korea’s relations with Latin America and the Caribbean started when Korean migrants first moved to Mexico in 1905.
In the ensuing 120 years, the people of Latin America and the Caribbean have demonstrated strong bonds of friendship and solidarity with the Korean people.

In 1950, when the Korean War broke out, Colombia sent troops to fight in defense of freedom and thousands of Mexicans also came to fight alongside us.
Moreover, every Latin American and Caribbean country at the time 20 in total- provided material assistance to Korea.
In 1991, Latin American and Caribbean states supported Korea’s membership to the United Nations.
Furthermore, as champions of nuclear-free zones, the nations of the region have consistently endorsed our efforts to denuclearize and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Latin America and the Caribbean have also helped provide an economic springboard for Korea’s development into one of the largest trading countries in the world.
Korea’s first comprehensive Free Trade Agreement was signed with Chile. The Korea-Chile FTA would serve as a benchmark for Korea’s subsequent trade agreements with other countries.
Korea now has FTAs with 8 countries in the region and has concluded additional FTA negotiations with Ecuador and Guatemala as well.

Insofar as past is prologue, we can say with confidence that our future together is even more promising.
Indeed, Korea’s economic connectivity with the region is growing stronger by the day.
Our cooperation is going beyond a complementary trade relationship defined by the exchange of manufactured goods and raw materials.
Today, our partnership is increasingly encompassing state-of-the art domains such as defense industry, aerospace, and electric and hydrogen vehicles.

Our collaboration is also expanding into the multilateral arena.
A key example is the WTO ‘Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement,’ which was concluded last July. This landmark achievement was made possible under the co-chairmanship of Korea and Chile.

This will also be the year of Latin America for plurilateral diplomacy, as Peru and Brazil will be hosting the APEC and G20 Summits, respectively, later this year.
I, for one, came away from the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting held in Rio earlier this year impressed by both the logistical and substantive preparations of our Brazilian hosts.
Korea stands ready to contribute proactively to ensure the success of both gatherings.

More recently, Korea and Cuba announced the establishment of official diplomatic relations. We did so on Valentine’s Day, although I can assure you that we didn’t deliberately choose Valentine’s Day. ^^
This consummated Korea’s diplomatic relations with all 33 Latin American and Caribbean states.

All of these developments together will further enrich the discussions and outcomes of the series of partnership events between our two sides scheduled for this year:
namely, the Korea-Latin America Future Cooperation Forum in June; the Korea-Central America Special Roundtable and the Korea-Caribbean High-Level Forum later in the year.

I trust that all of you will be unstinting in doing your part so that these events are as fruitful and mutually beneficial as possible.
The Foreign Ministry will do its utmost to ensure their success as well.
I thank everyone once again for being here today.

Muchas Gracias.
Muito Obrigado.