President Yoon Suk Yeol on July 8 left for Washington to attend this year’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit. He is shown in July last year shaking hands with leading figures attending the NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. (Kim Yong Wii from Office of the President)
By Xu Aiying
President Yoon Suk Yeol on July 8 left for Washington to attend this year’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit.
Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo on July 5 in a briefing announced the president’s itinerary at the Office of the President in Seoul.
President Yoon will stay in Honolulu, Hawaii, from July 8-9.
On the afternoon of July 8, he will lay flowers at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, where veterans of the Korean War are buried, and host a dinner for ethnic Koreans in Hawaii.
The next day, he will visit the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to receive a briefing on military and national security affairs from the commander and encourage the service personnel there.
President Yoon on July 10 will arrive in Washington to attend bilateral summits with over five NATO member states like the Czech Republic, Sweden and Finland. He will also discuss bilateral issues and regional and international affairs in the talks.
That evening, President Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee will attend a friendly dinner hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden.
On the morning of July 11, President Yoon will attend a meeting with the other member states of NATO’s Indo-Pacific 4 — Japan, Australia and New Zealand — and the plenary session of the NATO Summit.
That afternoon, he will attend the NATO Public Forum jointly hosted by NATO and five think tanks of the U.S. and Europe. He will also be the lone speaker at the forum’s Indo-Pacific session.
President Yoon is Korea’s first head of state to attend the NATO Summit for three consecutive years.
Deputy Adviser Kim said, “By attending this summit, Korea is expected to raise its solidarity with NATO, which shares the values of freedom, human rights and rule of law, and boost its standing as a global pivotal state that contributes to the freedom, peace and prosperity of the international community.”
“We will send a strong message on military cooperation between Russia and North Korea and discuss a response to this with NATO.”
xuaiy@korea.kr
