President Yoon Suk Yeol will host the inaugural Korea-Pacific Islands Summit from May 29-30 in Seoul. He is shown on March 29 speaking at a plenary session of the Second Summit for Democracy along with leaders of the U.S., Costa Rica, the Netherlands and Zambia. (Office of the President)

By Xu Aiying

President Yoon Suk Yeol will host the inaugural Korea-Pacific Islands Summit from May 29-30 in Seoul.

The Office of the President on April 18 said the event will be the first multilateral summit hosted by the country after President Yoon took office and the first between Korea and Pacific island nations.

Under the theme "Dedicating towards Co-prosperity: Strengthening Cooperation with Blue Pacific," the summit invited the leaders of the 14 member countries of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), the forum's chair, the French territories of French Polynesia and New Caledonia, Australia and New Zealand.

The 14 PIF nations are the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The participating leaders will discuss groundbreaking expansion of practical cooperation and higher collaboration on the international stage by Korea and PIF nations.

The leaders on May 29 will attend the summit and an official dinner in Seoul hosted by President Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee. The next day, they will visit Busan to attend side events.

The Office of the President said, "This summit will upgrade the consultative group with Pacific island nations, whose strategic importance is rising, to the highest level and expand cooperation based on their practical demands, serving as a signal to fully implement Seoul's Indo-Pacific strategies by region."

"The summit will contribute to resolving urgent issues that the Pacific island nations face such as climate change, disaster response and regional development and pursuing co-prosperity to raise our diplomatic status," it added. "We hope that this summit is an opportunity to strengthen the international community's support for Busan's bid to host the 2030 World Expo."

xuaiy@korea.kr