SEOUL, October 4 (AJP) - President Yoon Suk Yeol will embark on a week-long trip later this week to attend the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Laos.
According to the presidential office, Yoon will stop by the Philippines and Singapore to hold bilateral talks before heading to Laos for the summit scheduled for Oct. 8 to 11.
It will be his third ASEAN summit since taking office in 2022 and his administration is ramping up efforts to expand cooperation with ASEAN countries.
On the sidelines of the summit, he will attend a series of meetings with Southeast Asian leaders to boost regional trade, including the ASEAN+3 Summit and the East Asia Summit (EAS).
In particular, Yoon is expected to sit down for talks with Japan's newly elected Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba for the first time.
Yoon spoke with Ishiba over the phone last Wednesday shortly after he was elected as the island country's next prime minister, replacing the incumbent Fumio Kishida. During their talks, they agreed to continue their "shuttle diplomacy" which was recently restored under Kishida after a decade-long halt over historical disputes between the two countries.
