Korean President Park Geun-hye and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands prior to their

 meetings on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 6.  (Photos on the courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae).

    South Korean President Park Geun-hye attended the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, from Sept. 5-6, her first participation in a multilateral international meeting since her inauguration. 

Making her debut at the G20 Summit, President Park joined the other participating leaders in discussing growth and the global economy. 

President Park talks with Russian President Putin on matters of mutual concern.

At the Sept. 5 opening session under the theme “The Growth of the Global Economy,” President Park stressed that with each country being intertwined in the global economy, the planned reduction of quantitative easing might cause negative repercussions on developed countries if done without taking into consideration the financial situation faced by emerging economies, while acknowledging such an exit plan would help get the global economy back on track. 

Global leaders, including President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack

 Obama, participate in the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, from Sept. 5 to 6.

During the Sept. 6 session, titled “Job Creation and Investment,” President Park emphasized in a lead speech inclusive growth through job creation for pursuing sustainable growth as one of the G20’s top agenda items. She proposed the “creative economy” and a “disciplined market economy” as new approaches to job creation and inclusive growth. 

“The past economy used to run on mineral resources, whereas what drives the creative economy I envision is creative ideas,” Park said. In particular, she stressed the need for nurturing start-up businesses and venture companies capable of commercializing creative ideas.

President Park holds bilateral talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sept. 6.

The G20 communique issued at the end of the summit on Sept. 6 said, “Streng-thening growth and creating jobs is our top priority and we are fully committed to taking decisive actions to return to a job-rich, strong, sustainable and balanced growth path.” 

The statement continued, “In the five years since we first met, coordinated action by the G20 has been critical to tackling the financial crisis and putting the world economy on a path to recovery. But our work is not yet complete and we agree that it remains critical for G20 countries to focus all our joint efforts on engineering a durable exit from the longest and most protracted crisis in modern history. 

President Park and Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang 

have an extended summit meeting in Hanoi on Sept. 9.

“Our most urgent need is to increase the momentum of the global recovery, generate higher growth and better jobs, while strengthening the foundations for long-term growth and avoiding policies that could cause the recovery to falter or promote growth at other countries’ expenses,” it added.

On the sidelines of the G20 Summit, President Park held bilateral talks with each of heads of state form four countries — Italy, Germany, Kazakhstan, and Russia.

Park held talks with Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta on Sept. 5, the first such meeting with a European leader since she took office. They discussed issues of common interest, including cooperation among small and medium-sized firms of the two countries in creative economy-related industries like textiles, design, and fashion; cooperation on North Korean issues; and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) 2014 and Expo Milano 2015, both of which will take place in the Milan, Italian.

President Park also held talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the morning of Sept. 6. Marking this year as the 130th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties and the 50th anniversary of the dispatch of Korean miners to Germany, the two leaders noted that Korea and Germany have steadily developed a close and solid relationship. They also discussed matters of mutual concern, including recent developments surrounding the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia, ways to promote substantive bilateral cooperation, and major international issues such as the conflict in Syria. 

President Park attends a Hanbok-Ao dai fashion show in Hanoi on Sept. 8.

President Park and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev also held a meeting to discuss ways of promoting substantive cooperation.

On the afternoon of Sept. 6, President Park and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting to touch on ways of bolstering bilateral ties as well as cooperation in the Far East region. 

The two leaders discussed issues of mutual concern, including a projected railway project spanning Eurasia and a tripartite cooperation project involving Russia, South Korea, and North Korea. 

Park said this October, Seoul will host an international conference on Eurasian cooperation and expressed her expectation for Russia’s participation. “I have heard that President Putin also has been paying attention to economic cooperation between Europe and Asia as well as the development of the Far East regions,” she said. “It will enhance the Korea-Russia partnership and, furthermore, bring prosperity and peace to the Northeast region.”

President Putin extended his gratitude for Korea’s active role in the ongoing G20 summit meeting. “Korea is one of our priority partners in Asia,” Putin said.

Korea, Vietnam Seek to Seal FTA in 2014

President Park and Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang agreed to substantially boost the strategic cooperative partnership, which the two sides had built in 2009, during their summit talks in Hanoi, Vietnam on Sept. 9.

Both leaders agreed to speed up the ongoing free trade negotiations so that the two countries can finalize the agreement for a comprehensive level of free trade by 2014.

The two governments welcomed the commencement of a joint preliminary feasibility study between Korea and Vietnam this June for nuclear plant development in Vietnam worth $10 billion, and agreed to cooperate further on the development project.

Park visited Ho Chi Minh City on Sept. 10 as part of her five-day state visit of Vietnam, following the G20 Summit in Russia. She met the city’s Party Secretary Le Thanh Hai and Mayor Le Hoang Quan.