President Yoon Suk-yeol had a summit meeting with Pres­ident Azali Assou­mani of Comoros on May 21, during his participation in the Hiroshima G7 Summit as the Chairperson of the African Union (AU).

During the meeting, Pres­ident Yoon emphasized that countries in the Indian Ocean region, such as Comoros, are important partners in our Indo-Pacific strategy, and highlighted the increasing significance of the partner­ship with the African Union, consisting of 54 countries. He mentioned that since Korea obtained observer status in the AU in 2005, it has been collaborating with Africa in various fields such as agricul­ture, healthcare, and youth human resources development through the Korea-AU Cooper­ation Fund and support for AU peacekeeping operations.

President Yoon officially an­nounced his support for the African Union's membership in the G20, emphasizing the im­portance of Africa's role in dis­cussions on sustainable devel­opment and economic growth during the G20 summit. Presi­dent Assoumani expressed his deep appreciation for Korea's support and responded by stat­ing that he will continue to enhance cooperation between Korea and the AU.

President Assoumani ac­knowledged the prominent sta­tus and influence of the Kore­an economy on the global stage and strongly expressed Co­moros' hope for Korean support in areas such as improving food security, manufacturing industry cooperation, educa­tion and training, and climate change adaptation.

President Yoon extended an invitation to President Assou­mani to attend the first-ever Korea-Africa Summit, sched­uled for next year. President Assoumani expressed his gratitude for the invitation and stated his commitment to working together for the suc­cessful hosting of the summit.

Furthermore, both leaders discussed their mutual inter­ests in areas such as the blue economy, which focuses on sus­tainable utilization of marine resources, and development cooperation. They shared the opinion of further strengthen­ing the friendly relationship between the two countries.

President Assoumani ex­pressed Comoros' support for Korea's bid for a non-perma­nent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2024-2025 term, stating that the Comoros government and its people will stand with Korea for world peace.

This Korea-Comoros sum­mit meeting, held for the first time in 36 years since 1987, is regarded as an important milestone in strengthening the partnership with Africa on regional and global stages, including the AU and G20, not only for the bilateral relation­ship between the two coun­tries.