South Korean President Lee Myung-bak arrived in Mexico on Sunday for a G20
summit with other global leaders expected to focus on the worsening eurozone
debt crisis amid worries it could spread beyond the single-currency
bloc.
The summit, set for Monday and Tuesday, comes about a week after
Spain announced plans to seek a bailout, the fourth nation in the 17-member zone
to do so, and a day after Greece held a crucial election that may result in the
country's exit from the euro.
Greece's possible exit is feared to roil
not only Europe, but also the global economy as well.
Lee plans to
discuss with other world leaders tackling the eurozone debt crisis, coordination
of macroeconomic policies, strengthening the international financial system, and
other challenges during the summit in Mexico's Pacific coastal city of Los
Cabos.
"A main point of discussions will be resolving the eurozone
crisis," a senior presidential official said in a briefing to preview the
summit. "Europe's roles are important in resolving the crisis, but what is also
important is policy coordination among G20 nations."
The Group of 20
major economies forum, which was launched in late 2008 to tackle the financial
turmoil that was then sweeping the globe, boils down to how to stabilize the
global economy, which is a crucial issue to open economies like South Korea, the
official said.
Ahead of the leaders' summit, Lee plans to attend a
conference of about 100 top global business leaders and deliver a keynote speech
about the roles governments and businesses should play to help overcome the
global financial crisis and promote sustainable development, officials
said.
Mexico is the first leg of Lee's four-nation trip to Latin
America that will also take him to Brazil for a U.N. conference on sustainable
development, known as the "Rio+20" summit, as well as Chile and Colombia later
this week for bilateral visits.
The U.N. conference in Rio de Janeiro
is massive in scale, set to bring together a total of 50,000 people from around
the world, including government representatives from 186 countries, especially
78 heads of state.
During a keynote speech at the conference, Lee
plans to make a pitch for "green growth" as a solution to global challenges,
such as the economic crisis, the widening gap between rich and poor, climate
change and the decline in biodiversity, officials said.
Lee believes
the strategy will provide South Korea with fresh growth engines for its economy
and help the country -- one of the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters --
reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases amid growing
calls to curb global warming.
Under the drive, South Korea established
the think tank Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in 2010 to help develop
strategies to promote the environment-friendly cause. GGGI has since opened a
series of overseas offices, beginning with one in Denmark last year.
On the sidelines of the Rio+20 summit, representatives from South Korea and 14
other countries will sign a treaty that turns GGGI into an official
international organization, with Lee and about 10 heads of state attending the
signing ceremony. GGGI will become an international organization after the
signatories ratify the treaty.
Lee also plans to attend the
Denmark-organized Global Green Growth Forum.
During a three-day visit
to Chile, Lee will hold a summit with President Sebastian Pinera on June 22 to
talk mainly about expanding economic cooperation, especially in such areas as
resources development, infrastructure construction, renewable energy and the
defense industry.
Also scheduled are a meeting with Chilean business
leaders and a meeting with South Korean residents. The government of Santiago
also plans to award Lee honorary citizenship in recognition of his contributions
to strengthening ties between Seoul and the Chilean capital when Lee served as
Seoul mayor in 2002-2006.
Chile, which is rich in copper and other
natural resources, is the first foreign nation that signed a free trade
agreement with South Korea. This year marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic
relations between the two countries.
On the last leg of the trip, Lee
will make a state visit to Colombia on June 23-25.
Lee and Colombian
President Juan Manuel Santos will hold a summit on June 25 to discuss ways to
deepen all-round cooperation, especially in areas such as trade and investment,
infrastructure construction and resources development, science and technology
and development cooperation, the office said.
South Korea and Colombia
are in the final stages of talks to forge a free trade agreement, and the
upcoming trip by Lee is expected to provide the negotiations with important
momentum, the office said.
Colombia was the only nation in Central and
South America to send troops to help South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War.
During the visit, Lee plans to lay a wreath at a war memorial and hold a meeting
with veterans and their families to thank them for their contributions to South
Korea's defense.
Lee will be the first South Korean president to visit
Colombia. This year marks the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between
the two countries.