Seoul: South Korea has pledged to step up support for international cooperation on development aid to help ease humanitarian crises and promote sustainable growth and stability in less developed regions, the foreign ministry said Friday. South Korea reaffirmed its commitment to the goals during the fourth International Conference of Financing Development held in Seville, Spain, earlier this week.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Second Vice Foreign Minister Kim Ji-na, who attended the conference, highlighted that the new South Korean government under President Lee Jae Myung is committed to advancing international development cooperation in addressing humanitarian crises caused by poverty, hunger, inequality, disease, and others. She expressed hope to build forward-looking partnerships with the international community by sharing the lessons from South Korea's development story-from once being one of the world's poorest nations in the aftermath of war to becoming a major donor country.
On the sidelines of the conference, Kim met with key officials from international organizations, including Carsten Staur, chair of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Development Assistance Committee, and Li Junhua, U.N. undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs. Kim also met separately with Diego Martinez, Spain's deputy minister for global affairs, and Hisashi Matsumoto, Japan's parliamentary vice minister, for discussions on bilateral relations and efforts to bolster cooperation for sustainable development.