The 14th Korea-Middle East Cooperation Forum, co-hosted by the Korea-Arab Society(KAS), the Jeju Peace Institute(JPI) and the Middle East Studies Center at the American University in Cairo (AUC) and sponsored by the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs took place in Seoul on 28 November. This is a track 1.5 forum participated by the private and public sectors and first launched in 2003, in Korea and the Middle East on a rotational basis.

This year’s forum under the theme “Towards a New Vision for Korea-Middle East Cooperation” featured three sessions. The forum brought together about 250 people including incumbents and former high-level officials, politicians, business people, media and scholars. The participants exchanged knowledge and opinions on the development of the relationship between Korea and the Middle East to establish networks.

Those included H.E. Dr. Jawad Anani, Chairman of Amman Stock Exchange(former Deputy Prime Minister of Jordan), H.E. Dr. Cho Hyun, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Korea, H.E. Dr. Kim Sung-han, Dean of Graduate School of International Studies of Korea University, Prof. Gawdat Bahgat of National Defense University in the USA, H.E. Dr. Elsadig Elfaqih, former Secretary-General of Arab Thought Forum(Sudan), Dr. Lee Kwon Hyung, Head of Africa and Middle East Team at Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, Dr. Mohamed Bensdik, Director of Asia and Australia at the League of Arab States(Morocco), Dr. Joo Dong-Joo, Senior Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade and Dr. Fahad Alsharif, Senior Research Fellow of King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies (Saudi Arabia) and Dr. Reem Badran, Chairwoman of Al Hurra Co.(Jordan).

It served as an opportunity for all participants to discuss imperative issues in depth ways for Korea and the Middle East to develop mutual understanding and to build networks among them.