President Park Geun-hye returned to Korea after the Saint Petersburg G20 Summit and her state visit to Vietnam.
President Park received high marks for multilateral diplomatic debut at the G20 Summit held on September 5-6. President Park urged advanced countries to make concerted efforts to ease financial uncertainties in the global market as emerging economies are likely to be affected by the U.S. exit strategy from quantitative easing. Also, President Park held summit talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The two female leaders have many commonalities and their friendship goes back 13 years.
President Park delivered speeches at two working sessions of the summit, emphasizing cooperation and job creation. In particular, she proposed her “creative economy” vision and “a disciplined market economy“ as solutions to high unemployment. These were included in the Joint Statement.
While President Park has agreed to cooperate with Russia on Far East development projects, she reached an agreement with Vietnamese President to finalize the ongoing free trade negotiations.
During her state visit to Vietnam, she paid homage to former Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum. President Park apologized for the unforgettable wounds Korea gave to Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Clad in Hanbok, President Park appeared on the catwalk at the fashion show.
