(LEAD) Yoon to hold over 10 bilateral meetings on sidelines of NATO summit
(ATTN: UPDATES with Yoon's remarks in paras 7-10; ADDS photo)
By Kim Eun-jung
HONOLULU, July 8 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol is set to hold over 10 bilateral meetings with his counterparts on the sidelines of the upcoming North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, his office said Monday.
Yoon stopped in Hawaii to visit the Indo-Pacific Command ahead of his attendance to the NATO summit on Wednesday and Thursday as one of the Indo-Pacific partner nations, alongside Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Yoon was initially scheduled to have a series of bilateral talks with the Czech Republic, Sweden, Finland and Norway, but the number of countries is expected to rise to over 10, a senior presidential official told reporters in Honolulu.
Talks are currently under way to have additional bilateral summits with Japan, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and Britain, according to the official.
On Thursday, Yoon is scheduled to have a four-way meeting with three other Indo-Pacific nations and deliver a speech at the NATO public forum, an event jointly hosted by NATO and think tanks in Europe and the United States.
On the same day, he plans to meet NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
At the upcoming summit, Yoon said he will express concerns over the deepening ties between Russia and North Korea and cooperate with NATO members and Indo-Pacific partners to end the ongoing war in Ukraine.
"Russia and North Korea are engaging in military and economic cooperation that directly violates U.N. Security Council resolutions, further raising concerns within the international community," Yoon said in a meeting with Korean residents in Hawaii.
Yoon said his third consecutive attendance at the NATO summit underscores the interlinked security between the Indo-Pacific and Europe.
"It shows the international community's growing expectations for South Korea's role at a time when the security of the Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific cannot be separated," he said.
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