Jeju embraces Arab, ASEAN nations for future global exchanges

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Sat, September 23, 2023 | 07:49

Foreign Affairs

Jeju embraces Arab, ASEAN nations for future global exchanges

Posted : 2023-06-02 16:08

Updated : 2023-06-03 08:41

Jeju Governor Oh Young-hun, left, presides a roundtable meeting with ambassadors from 10 Arab nations in Korea at Jeju International Convention Center in Jeju Island, Thursday. Courtesy of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province

By Ko Dong-hwan

The Jeju Island government is acting on its plan to further strengthen ties with Arab and ASEAN nations through an international high-level gathering.

The move is led by Jeju Governor Oh Young-hun, who met with ambassadors from 10 Arab nations in Korea and dignitaries from the Vietnamese government and an Indonesia-based global alliance of municipal governments in Asia-Pacific countries.

The meetings came amid a common push by the participating countries for energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables, a critical and inevitable challenge for the global society.

The meetings took place on the sidelines of this year's "Jeju Forum: For Peace and Prosperity," which ran from Wednesday to Friday.

The event's slogan was Working Together for Sustainable Peace and Prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. The slogan chimes with one of the core policies of the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province which is titled ASEAN Plus Alpha ― to expand ties with the global community from Southeast Asia and beyond to accomplish humanity's desperate mission for cleaner energy.

On the forum's second day, ambassadors of Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Sudan and Iraq gathered at Jeju International Convention Center and sat together with the Jeju governor.

Jeju Governor Oh Young-hun, left, and Chairman of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee in Vietnam Vu Hai Ha share a conversation at Jeju International Convention Center on Jeju Island, Thursday. Courtesy of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province

"The Jeju government this year has launched the Korean-ASEAN Leaders Forum. I wish there was another forum like that dedicated to Arab nations," Governor Oh told the ambassadors. "That will push our bilateral cooperative network tighter."

Arab nations have been pioneering future paths in their own ways as has Jeju, trudging its own path that's "similar to and yet also different from" that of mainland Korea, according to Moroccan Ambassador to Korea Chafik Rachadi, during the meeting.

The ambassadors proposed that Arab cities and the Jeju government continued forming alliances, signing memorandums of understanding and introducing new direct flight paths connecting the island to Arab cities.

Governor Oh suggested that energy policy directors from Arab countries join future international forums scheduled on the island, including the hydrogen economy forum later this year.

The island is striving to become a green hydrogen global hub, and so the governor also wooed the ambassadors for more active cooperation on green energy between the Arab societies, Jeju and the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Secretary General of the United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific Bernadia Tjandradewi, left, and Jeju Governor Oh Young-hun shakes hands at Jeju International Convention Center in Jeju Island, Thursday. Courtesy of Jeju Provincial Government

UAE ambassador Abdullah Al-Nuaimi said he would like to see a delegation from Jeju at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, held in November in his country since the conference will be about green energy and environment.

Later the day, Governor Oh met Vu Hai Ha, chairman of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee in Vietnam. Sharing that the Jeju government has been supportive of many Vietnamese in the country, the two heads agreed to more active bilateral exchanges in trade, tourism, new direct flights and new agreements between Jeju and Da Nang.

The Vietnamese envoy was in Jeju for the Korea-ASEAN Leaders Forum on Thursday.

Governor Oh also met Bernadia Tjandradewi, Secretary General of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) Asia-Pacific based in Jakarta. Oh said that UCLG's activities overlap with Jeju's ASEAN Plus Alpha goal and accepted her offer to join the Asian mayors' forum hosted by her organization the following year.

aoshima11@koreatimes.co.kr