Central Asia, but not as you know it

Eugene Lee

Having followed the recent developments, a new development in the action by the presidential office drew my attention. President Yoon Suk Yeol and his entourage have traveled to Central Asia. After writing a piece about a month ago calling for the reignition of foreign policy, my first thought was that someone may have read it. The presidential office did restart foreign engagement, albeit on the wrong foot.

First of all, in foreign affairs there is a concept called "protocol," put simply "a diplomatic code of conduct," or manners. According to these, the first meeting should have been with the initially canceled states, Denmark and Germany, before Central Asia. As it would have been in your real life, imagine if you have made important appointments and if they didn't go according to the plan, you would probably try to maintain the same order, assuming your partners are communicating with each other all the time. Another problem was that another important meeting was taking place at the same time in Italy — the Group of Seven. We probably should have tried to squeeze ourselves in there. Well, I'll cut Yoon some slack and praise the office for at least restarting foreign engagement.

Another discrepancy how the trip was presented and the spotlight given to each country the president visited. It wasn't just shallow; rather it was........

© The Korea Times