Chairman Lee Chul-woo says, “We will promote regional diplomacy in earnest”

For full-fledged regional diplomacy, the Governors Association of Korea announced that it held the “2022 Meeting with the Envoys of Foreign Diplomatic Missions in Korea” at the Grand Hyatt Seoul on Dec. 2.

As an annual event celebrating its 13th anniversary this year, the 2022 foreign envoys invitation meeting was a success with the largest number of foreign ambassadors in Korea attending.

Chairman Lee Chul-woo of Governors Association of Korea, also Governor of Gyeongsangbuk-do, delivered a keynote speech titled "Resolving the Contemporary Problems through the Local Era."
He stressed the need to refresh the Republic of Korea through the local era to solve the severe socio-economic problems due to the low birth rate and aging, the disappearance of local population, hyperpolarization between regions, and concentration in Seoul and the metropolitan area.

Until now, diplomacy has been centered on central diplomacy as a country-to-country, and provinces have been far from the subject of diplomacy, as represented by the term "internationalization."

Chairman Lee Cheol-woo presented a new paradigm of local diplomacy as a national strategy, which serves as a complement and buffer for the blind spot of national and central diplomacy to about 100 heads of diplomatic missions in 78 countries.

In addition, Vice Chairman Yoo Jung-bok of Governors Association of Korea, concurrently Mayor of Incheon Metropolitan City, announced that it plans to push for an "invited meeting and fam tour for staffs of embassies of APEC member countries" in the first half of next year to host the "2025 APEC Summit." At the opening event, a promotional video for the 2030 Busan World Expo was screened.

In particular, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Korea, the main competitor, attended and the Governors Association of Korea asked for attention and cooperation from each country to host the Busan World Expo, leading to a great response from ambassadors from various countries.

Some foreign ambassadors to Korea promised to ask their home countries to support the Busan’s bid.

Chairman Lee Chul-woo said that "local diplomacy" is a key means of saving the country and now local governments should open a new chapter in local diplomacy through solidarity and cooperation between cities and regions, beyond the level of administrative and trade exchanges.