SEOUL, – Foreign Minister Park Jin will visit Turkmenistan next week to attend a forum involving the top diplomats of five Central Asian nations, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, his office said Thursday.

The 16th South Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum is set to take place in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat on Nov. 1, bringing together about 200 officials from various sectors to discuss ways for sustainable growth in a wide range of areas from transportation, health, and climate change to IT and education, the ministry said.

Park plans to hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts of the five Central Asian countries on the margins of the forum.

Park is also expected to pay a courtesy call on Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedow during his trip.

Park will be the first South Korean foreign minister to visit Turkmenistan since the establishment of bilateral relations in 1992.

Source: Yonhap News Agency