1. On November 20, Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Yoon Soon-gu held the third Republic of Korea-Azerbaijan policy consultation with Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov of the latter country, who was on a visit to the ROK. In their meeting, the two senior diplomats reviewed the progress in the bilateral relations and exchanged a wide range of views on ways to step up substantive cooperation as well as the situations on the Korean Peninsula and in the Caucasus.

2. The two sides took note of the steady advancement of friendly and cooperative ties across the board, including political affairs, economy and culture, between the two countries that mark the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations; drew a common understanding that the policy consultation, which took place in two years since the one held in 2015, is a useful mechanism for seeking a closer and broader bilateral cooperation; and agreed to boost reciprocal visits between senior officials and various other forms of exchanges and cooperation.

3. As a way to increase substantive cooperation, Deputy Minister Yoon proposed holding business forums to offer Korean and Azerbaijani enterprises opportunities to engage in exchanges; and asked the Azerbaijani government to pay attention to and support bids of Korean companies to take part in infrastructure and plant construction work in Azerbaijan. Deputy Minister Khalafov, speaking of Azerbaijan’s plan to focus on cultivating non-petroleum industries for the country’s economic development, voiced hope for participation of Korean companies in the process.

4. Deputy Minister Yoon, calling with emphasis the North Korean nuclear program a grave security threat to not only the Korean Peninsula but the entire global community, brought attention to the ROK government’s efforts to resolve the issue in a peaceful manner and with united support of the international community, and asked the Azerbaijani government to implement the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and join the other efforts to respond to the North Korean issue.

° In response, Deputy Minister Khalafov, expressing support for the direction of the ROK government’s policy toward North Korea, stated that Azerbaijan will support the efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue in a peaceful way.

5. Deputy Minister Khalafov explained the situation in the Caucasus, including the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, exchanging views with Deputy Minister Yoon on ways to achieve a peaceful resolution of the dispute.

6. The ROK-Azerbaijan policy consultation is seen to have served as an opportunity to review the progress in friendly and cooperative projects between the two countries in the political and economic sectors, as well as to discuss specific ways to step up substantive bilateral cooperation across the board, including trade, investment and infrastructure construction.


* unofficial translation