UNJournal  Kayla Lee  |  On the afternoon of Wednesday, February 11, The Republic of Korea’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Yoonjoo will hold the second ROK-Italy Strategic Dialogue with Italy’s Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Maria Tripodi, Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) reported on February 5.

The ROK and Italy established their Strategic Partnership in 2018, and the first ROK-Italy Strategic Dialogue was held in 2020, according to MOFA’s statement.

MOFA pointed out that Italy is Korea’s fourth-largest trading partner within the EU and is visited by approximately one million Koreans each year. South Korea is the third largest export market for Italian products in the Asia-Pacific region, according to Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited Seoul last month on January 19 for a summit with President Lee Jae-myung—the first Italian prime minister to visit Korea in 19 years, MOFA said.

Speaking about the ROK-Italy Strategic Dialogue scheduled for this Wednesday, MOFA added, “At this strategic dialogue, which will be convened again after a six-year hiatus, the two sides will engage in in-depth discussions, based on the agreements reached at last month’s summit on ways to faithfully implement follow-up measures and further strengthen cooperation across a wide range of areas."

Prior to her arrival in Seoul, Undersecretary Tripodi was in Tokyo February 9 to meet her Japanese counterpart, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Yuumi Yoshikawa. Following that meeting, Vice-Minister Yoshikawa was reported to say that since their bilateral relations were upgraded to a "Strategic Partnership" at last month's Japan-Italy Summit, she would like to deepen cooperation in a wide range of fields going forward, as posted on Japan’s MOFA homepage.

That report said the Italy-Japan discussions focused on security-related cooperation, such as the joint development of next-generation fighter aircraft by Japan, Italy, and the United Kingdom, as well as cooperation in cultural areas, including the Japan-Italy Film Co-Production Agreement.

Korea’s MOFA announced that Vice Minister Park and Undersecretary Tripodi would discuss “trade and investment, advanced industries, and science and technology, as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges” in Seoul on Wednesday.