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Thanks a lot for the invitation, Ambassador, to celebrate with you this National Day – a day that commemorates the foundation of the first Korean State more than 4.000 years ago. A day which reminds us of your country’s long history and rich culture.

To you, Ambassador, and to your fellow Korean citizens my warmest congratulations!

As a matter of fact, our National Days fall onto the same day, October 3rd and it has become a tradition that the Korean Minister for Reunification comes to Germany every year to attend our celebrations. So, a few days ago, Minister Chung was the first Minister of the new Korean government to visit Germany.

36 years ago, Germany, we, the Germans, had the luck to see the Berlin wall fall peacefully 36 years ago. We remain grateful to all those who supported our reunification.

Be assured Ambassador, that my Government fully supports the endeavour of President Lee and his government to pursue exchange, normalization, denuclearization on the Korean peninsula.

In the United Nations command, Germany is now represented by a permanent liaison officer of our armed forces. This underlines our commitment to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Back in July, just a few weeks after I took office in Berlin, I had the pleasure to talk to the Special Envoy sent to Germany by President Lee to share the priorities of his new government. This exchange made my conviction even stronger that the Republic of Korea is a key partner for Germany in many areas, as a tech and innovation world power and as a beacon for democracy and the rule of law in the Indo-Pacific.

As export-driven economies, we both strive for open markets, free and secure shipping routes and a rules-based trade order.

The EU-Korean Free Trade Agreement is a great example of such a framework that contributed to making Korea one of Germany’s biggest trading partners in Asia.

There were further important milestones in the last 12 months:

Korea’s accession to the research and innovation scheme “Horizon Europe” and the conclusion of the EU-Korean Security and Defense Partnership.

And with regard to security and defense: In the last years, I was Ambassador of my country to NATO, and we intensively worked in NATO Council on strengthening the partnership with our Indo-Pacific partner Korea, because we are convinced, because we know that security in the Atlantic and in the Indo-Pacific is more and more interlinked.

Trade, business, security … Our relationship today has an even deeper meaning, it follows an even stronger interest. It is about our democratic principles. We live in a globalized world where we witness that our democratic principles as such are challenged daily.

We as democracies are challenged in a way that both our countries have realized that we need to defend and promote our values and interests more intensively. Because no one else will do it for us.

So we see a lot of potential for cooperation in front of us bilaterally and beyond. That is why we are grateful that Korea followed Minister Wadephul’s initiative for a meeting of European and Indo-Pacific partners on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York last month, where we were able to exchange views about our interlinked challenges and discuss ways ahead.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We can learn a lot about each other, we can learn a lot from each other, the people in our countries should get to know each other better and grow even closer to each other. I’m sure, especially the younger generation in our countries enjoys being connected. In this spirit, I would like to acknowledge the work and dedication of the German-Korean Societies as well as the German-Korean Forum, including the Junior Forum, to bringing our citizens together.

The rise in popularity of Korean culture in my country is wonderful.

And I am proud to see the popularity of German culture in Korea, for example classical music. The Berliner Philharmoniker – and they are world class - are currently on their Asia Tour and will be performing in Seoul soon.

Dear Ambassador,

Thank you for your hospitality today as well as for your tireless commitment to German-Korean relations. We are delighted to have with your country and yourself not only a partner, but a friend.