Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha met with ambassadors from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Tuesday to discuss South Korea's cooperation with the bloc ahead of an annual regional forum set for the weekend in the Philippines.

The ASEAN Regional Forum and a series of foreign ministers' meetings involving ASEAN and its partners will be held from Sunday to Tuesday in Manila to discuss diplomacy and cooperation issues. 

"I am looking very much forward to the meetings in Manila ... I really wanted to have this discussion with you to better prepare myself for my first participation in the various ASEAN ministerial meetings," Kang told the ambassadors.

Aside from the Philippines, the other members of ASEAN are Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

"Of course I can assure you of the importance the government, and my president in particular, places on this strategic partnership that we have with ASEAN," the South Korean foreign minister said. "Certainly I am very committed as a foreign minister to continue to develop this very fruitful partnership in the years to come," she noted. (Yonhap)