President Lee Myung-bak will leave for Vietnam on Thursday for a three-day visit.

On Friday, Lee will attend the “ASEAN Plus Three” summit, which involves all ten ASEAN countries, South Korea, China and Japan. He will also attend the South Korea-ASEAN summit to discuss methods of increasing regional cooperation in East Asia.

In addition, Lee will hold separate talks on collaboration for the upcoming Group of 20 summit in Seoul with G20 member nation Indonesia and with Vietnam and Singapore.

Lee plans to use the South Korea-ASEAN summit to accelerate the devising of a New Asia Diplomacy plan that involves bringing the parties together into a strategic partnership and South Korea raising its status as a leader among emerging nations in the region.

Also on the president’s itinerary are talks with Japanese President Naoto Kan and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. The three will discuss issues such as the G20 summit in November, North Korea’s nuclear program and ongoing exchange rate disputes.

Lee will also meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss the political situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia.