Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan will visit European Union (EU) headquarters in Belgium next week to sign a South Korea-EU framework agreement.

The Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Yu’s three-day visit to Belgium will start Monday. He and the foreign ministers of the EU’s 27 member countries will sign the accord that is expected to lay the legal and institutional groundwork for South Korea and the EU to strengthen bilateral cooperation.

During his stay in Belgium, Yu will meet with European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Margaret Ashton, Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Yu is expected to discuss with the top European officials the sinking of the “Cheonan” naval ship, North Korea’s nuclear issue as well as other contentious issues regarding the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia.

A ministry official in Seoul said Yu is expected to engage in diplomatic efforts to get the EU’s cooperation in probing the naval incident and coming up with measures to handle the matter.