South Korea will hold its first-ever summit with Pacific Island countries on Monday. 

President Yoon Suk Yeol will meet in Seoul with the top leaders of over ten countries in the region, including the Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Palau and the Marshall Islands. 

To be held under the theme of "Navigating towards Co-Prosperity: Strengthening Cooperation with the Blue Pacific," the summit will likely discuss deepening Seoul’s commitment to the region based on its Indo-Pacific strategy amid the region’s growing geopolitical and economic importance. 

While other possible agenda items include cooperation on resources, development and maritime affairs and fisheries as well as regional political situations, Japan’s planned release of water from the Fukushima nuclear plant may also be discussed with the island countries to be directly affected by it. 

Separately, President Yoon has been holding bilateral summit meetings with each of the Pacific Islands leaders with five such summits held on Sunday and five others to follow on Monday. 

Around ten top leaders from the Pacific Island nations and other senior officials representing the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum have been visiting South Korea for the summits.