Foreign Minister Park Jin has held a flurry of discussions with leaders of European nations to seek support for South Korea's bid to host the 2030 World Expo, his office said Tuesday.

On the sidelines of the 2023 Bled Strategic Forum held in Slovenia the previous day, Park held bilateral talks with his counterparts from Armenia, North Macedonia, Slovakia and Switzerland, and paid a courtesy visit to Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov.

Park stressed that the southeastern port city of Busan would be the "best choice" for the World Expo in his back-to-back meetings, during which the European leaders said they would seriously consider its candidacy, according to the ministry.

They also reaffirmed their support for South Korea's "audacious" initiative to offer economic assistance to the North in exchange for denuclearization steps, as Park addressed the escalating military provocations from Pyongyang.

At the opening ceremony of the forum, Park briefly met Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and several other leaders to rally their support for South Korea's bid.

Park also held a brief meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly and discussed follow-up measures on agreements reached by the leaders of the two countries at a summit meeting in May, including critical mineral supply chains and high-level economic security dialogue.

The Bled Strategic Forum is an annual international conference on diplomacy and security, bringing together experts and policymakers from Central and Southeastern Europe.

Park was on a four-day visit to Turkey and Slovenia, where he attended a session of the forum as the first South Korean foreign minister to do so. (Yonhap)