President Lee Jae Myung is seen at Ankara Esenboga Airport in Ankara during his state visit to Turkey on Monday. (Yonhap) President Lee Jae Myung on Monday arrived in Ankara, Turkey, on a state visit for the last leg of his 10-day trip to Middle Eastern nations and the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Lee on Monday was set to visit the memorial mausoleum of the first Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, hold a summit with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and attend a state dinner hosted by the Turkish leader. Before departing on Tuesday, Lee will hold a flower-laying ceremony in the Korean War Memorial Park in Ankara and meet overseas Koreans in Turkey.
Lee’s trip to Ankara is expected to deepen ties in the field of defense, nuclear energy, biotechnology and the creative industry — areas the Lee administration has been keen to expand international cooperation in.
Lee’s scheduled meeting with Erdogan follows just days after they met Saturday on the sidelines of the G20 Summit, along with leaders of middle-power countries from MIKTA, or Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia. Lee was the chair of the separate summit.
South Korea and Turkey have maintained a strategic partnership since 2012, and a free trade pact has been in effect between the two countries since 2013.
In his interview with Turkey-based news agency Anadolu, released Sunday, Lee highlighted Turkey’s strategic position bridging Europe, the Middle East, Eurasia and Africa, describing the country as “an important hub in the Eurasian region.”
Lee also described South Korea and Turkey as “brotherly nations bound by blood,” recalling Turkey’s dispatch of ground forces of some 4,500 soldiers to fight side by side with South Korea during the Korean War (1950-53).
The two countries’ ties have since grown to encompass the fields of national defense, nuclear energy and other future-oriented industries.
In a move to foster people-to-people exchanges with Turkey, Lee said Seoul has worked to facilitate an easier immigration process for Turkish citizens traveling to South Korea by streamlining the process for group submissions, expanding Turkish language support, and extending the validity of electronic travel authorization for visa-free tourists.
Before visiting Turkey, Lee traveled to the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and South Africa during his trip that started on Nov. 17. Lee returns to South Korea on Wednesday.
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