(News Focus) Lee wraps up ASEM diplomacy after proposing global financial reform

By Yoo Cheong-mo
BEIJING, Oct. 25 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak concluded his
summit diplomacy at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Beijing on Saturday with
calls for concerted global efforts to overcome the financial crisis and
denuclearize North Korea, as well as for sweeping reform of global financial
organizations, including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.
Through bilateral and multilateral summit meetings, as well as ASEM speeches, Lee
voiced opposition to protectionist trade policies and proposed overhauling the
roles and functions of the IMF and the World Bank in order for the world to
overcome the current financial turmoil and prevent the recurrence of a similar
crisis in the future.
Lee also expressed high expectations for the Group of 20 financial summit slated
for mid-November in Washington D.C., saying that the upcoming summit meeting must
generate "substantive and productive" results through closer consultations
between emerging and advanced economies.
He made repeated assertions that emerging Asian economies should be allowed to
reflect their positions in the restructuring of the international financial
organizations.
The biennial ASEM summit opened in Beijing Friday, with the global financial
crisis the key focus of attention among participating leaders of 43 member
nations and heads of the European Commission and the ASEAN Secretariat.
Concluding the two-day summit, the Asian and European leaders pledged to swiftly
restructure the global financial systems and take united action in tackling the
unprecedented financial market upheavals, as stock markets around the world once
again tumbled.
They urged the international community to "continue to strengthen coordination
and cooperation and take effective and available economic and financial measures
in a comprehensive way to restore market confidence, stabilize global financial
markets and promote global economic growth."
On Friday, Lee met with leaders of China, Japan and 10 member states of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), seeking to orchestrate closer
regional cooperation in the face of the worsening U.S.-originated financial
crisis.
The leaders of the so-called ASEAN Plus Three countries eventually came up with
an agreement to create an US$80 billion joint fund by next June and to push for
the establishment of a regional economic surveillance organization to ensure
greater financial stability in the region.
"Lee, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and 10 ASEAN
leaders agreed on the need to beef up regional cooperation and policy
coordination in the face of the global financial crisis," Lee's spokesman, Lee
Dong-kwan, said in a press statement.
The spokesman also noted that the East Asian leaders agreed to actively
participate in various international efforts to stem the spread of the financial
crisis. ASEAN members include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
President Lee went on to hold a series of bilateral summit talks with leaders of
Japan, Vietnam, Denmark, Poland and France, stressing that all countries across
the world should strictly abide by the principles of the free market economy and
refrain from resorting to protectionist trade policies.
In addition, Lee held informal bilateral meetings with Bulgarian President Georgi
Parvanov, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and British Foreign Minister
David Miliband, who is attending the ASEM summit on behalf of British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown.
Notably, Lee and Japanese Prime Minister Aso agreed to pursue a "mature
partnership" between South Korea and Japan and to resume bilateral shuttle
diplomacy, long suspended following the outbreak of territorial and historical
conflicts between the two countries earlier this year.
Under the agreement to resume shuttle diplomacy, Aso agreed to visit Seoul in the
immediate future, possibly early next year.
Lee and Aso also agreed to hold the first tripartite summit talks involving China
in the Japanese city of Fukuoka by mid-December to discuss closer policy
coordination on the global financial crisis, climate change and energy issues,
according to President's Lee's spokesman.
The first tripartite summit between South Korea, China and Japan was to take
place in September, but was put on hold due to a leadership change in Tokyo and
Japan's provocative claim to the South Korean islets of Dokdo.
Lee's summit with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday morning produced
an agreement to cooperate on concluding ongoing free trade agreement negotiations
between South Korea and the European Union by the end of this year.
Lee and Sarkozy also agreed to cooperate closely to produce substantive
agreements to fight the global financial crisis at the Group of 20 summit slated
for mid-November in Washington D.C.
Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European
Union, is reportedly pushing to use the ASEM event to press Asian nations for
support in a dramatic restructuring of the global financial system.
Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, was also on hand at
the Lee-Sarkozy meeting to call for a swift conclusion of Korea-EU FTA
negotiations.
ycm@yna.co.kr
(END)