Southeast Asian ambassadors in Korea met with Korea’s chief ASEAN envoy here to explore ways to enhance ties between Korea and the Association of Southeast Nations during a meeting at the ASEAN-Korea Center in downtown Seoul on Tuesday.

ASEAN-Korea Center Ambassador Chung Hae-moon met with the 10 ASEAN ambassadors to Korea to discuss how the ASEAN Committee in Seoul and the ASEAN Korea Center could “cooperate to move the ASEAN-Korea partnership forward toward a shared goal of progress and prosperity,” according to a statement by the center. Indonesian Ambassador to Korea John A. Prasetio is the current chairperson of the ACS.

“An overarching theme of discussion at the meeting was how to increase the involvement of ASEAN-Korea Center in the activities of the ACS and vice versa, in order to solidify cooperation between the two parties,” the ASEAN-Korea Center said in the statement. “Both the ASEAN-Korea Center and the ASEAN Committee in Seoul are committed to working toward forging a mutually beneficial partnership.”

The ACS is composed of the heads of mission of the 10 ASEAN member nations in Korea. The ACS is tasked with promoting ASEAN activities in the host country. Chairmanship rotates every six months among the members in alphabetical order.

The envoys of Korea and Southeast Asian nations also finalized plans for the 5th Annual ASEAN-Korea Center Council Directors Meeting slated for Feb. 21-22.

The diplomatic leaders talked about how the ASEAN centers in Korea, Japan and China could collaborate on strengthening the ASEAN Plus Three Cooperation process, particularly in enhancing people-to-people exchanges in culture, tourism and education.

Proposed by the secretary-general of the ASEAN center in Korea, the idea took one step further to becoming a reality after the first informal meeting among the secretaries-general of the three centers which took place on the sidelines of the ASEAN Tourism Forum in the Laotian capital city of Vientiane in January.

They also made plans to prepare for the “Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity 2013,” where the ASEAN-Korea Center will organize a session focused on boosting cooperation between ASEAN and Korea.

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)