President Lee Jae-myung returned home from his of 10-day trip to the Middle East and Africa on Nov. 25, in which he intensified a “sales diplomacy” to expand the presence of the Korean defense industry, dubbed “K-defense,” through reinforced cooperation with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
President Lee accelerated efforts to expand an economic presence in emerging and developing countries by widening the rational diplomacy landscape.
He focused on stepping up the responsible global power’s standing by stressing the recovery of functions of the multi-lateral trade regime, while attending the Global 20 Countries (G20) Summit in South Africa, Africa’s 1st G20 summit.
President Lee Jae-myung shakes hands with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Expo Center in Johannesburg, South Africa, prior to the opening of the G20 summit.
President Lee visited the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Türkiye and held separate bilateral talks on the occasion of his participation in the G20 summit, which took place from Nov. 22 to Nov. 23.
The UAE, Egypt and Türkiye are regional centers, based on the Middle East, bridging Europe and Africa.
It was the first time that President Lee had toured the Middle East and African region since his inauguration. His trip may be construed as his launch of efforts to make an inroad into “Global South,” standing for developing and emerging countries mostly located in Southern Hemisphere.
Korea’s main area of cooperation with the countries is the defense industry.
Figures, released by the Exim Bank of Korea, showed that Korea’s weapon exports to the Middle East surged to $747.48 million last year, an over three-fold jump over $241.06 million in 2019.
The North American portion of the MENA region’s weapon imports dropped from 77.1 percent to 52.2 percent during the same period while Asia’s share jumped from 9.5 percent to 18.3 percent. It may be interpreted as the fact that the Middle Eastern region has diversified weapons supplies and seen Asia’s share of weapon imports rising.
President Lee Jae-Myung holds summit talks with United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at Abu Dhabi Qasr Al Watan on Nov. 11.
At the UAE, his first stop, President Lee adopted a joint declaration titled “A New Leap toward a Shared Journey for the Next Century,” designed to deepen their special strategic partnership to a permanent and irreversible level based on trust, mutual respect and solidarity.
The UAE is Korea’s sole country to have struck a special strategic partnership.
The joint statement said the leaders of the two countries agreed to build a future-oriented cooperation structure in major strategic areas, such as defense industry/defense industry technology, new advanced technologies, such as AI and quantum, nuclear power, public health/medical care, grain security and cultural exchanges.
In particular, a highlight was strengthening cooperation in defense. The two countries agreed to inaugurate “extendable export strategies designed to elevate cooperative ties,” encompassing joint development and local production, technology transfer and joint market entry in third countries, going beyond simple sales of weapons.
The Presidential Office said they were expected to land defense industry orders worth more than $15 billion (22 trillion won).
The UAE was the Middle East’s first country to have introduced the Cheongung-II, Korea’s homemade surface-to-air missile (M-SAM) defense system designed to intercept incoming missiles at altitudes of 15 kilometers and ranges of 40 km.
The Middle Eastern country is known to have shown an interest in introducing the KF-21, Korean-made supersonic fighter recently.
In the nuclear power business, both countries agreed to jointly explore the global nuclear power market by capitalizing on the UAE’s Barakah Nuclear Power Plant, Korea’s first overseas nuclear power plant order.
In the AI sector, the Korean government and companies agreed to participate in the “Stargate Project,” the UAE’s large-sized AI data center.
President Lee Jae-myung poses with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi prior to their summit talks at the presidential palace in Cairo on Nov. 20.
President Lee continued to conduct “K-defense sales diplomacy” in Egypt on the second leg of his latest overseas visit.
In a joint press briefing, President Lee said that Lee, explaining that the excellent performance of K-defense recognized globally, expected joint production of K-9 Thunder self-propelled howitzer, representing both countries’ cooperation in the defense industry, to expand to FA-50 Fighting Eagle and the Chungum (TAipers).
President Lee agreed to ramp up defense cooperation and push for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership (CEPA) during his summit talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
CEPA, similar to a Free Trade Agreement, is a trade pact encompassing products, services, intellectual properties and manpower exchanges beyond lowering of tariffs.
President Lee Jae-myung shakes hands with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Türkiye at summit talks on Nov. 24 at the Presidential Complex in Ankara.
In Türkiye, the last leg of his overseas trip, President Lee met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and both countries adopted a joint statement on strategic partnership.
Both sides discussed ways of ramping up cooperation in areas, such as the defense industry and infrastructure and Korea’s participation in Türkiye’s second nuclear power project.
The G20 summit in Johannesburg was the last multilateral diplomatic summit for President Lee this year. He used the latest G20 summit as an opportunity to expand Korea’s diplomatic horizon to Africa.
The G20 has 21 member countries, including the G7 countries, BRICS, MIKTA, a grouping of Mexico, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Türkiye and Australia, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, EU and the African Union.
The summit adopted the “G20 Summit Declaration,” reaffirming the multi-lateral spirit.
The statement stresses cooperation for multilateral trade and multilateral diplomacy against trade protectionism, centering around super powers like the “U.S-China trade war.”
President Lee urged the international community to restore the multilateral trade regime.
He called for the restoration of the functions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and solutions through global alliance.
The leaders of the United States, China and Russia did not participate in the latest G20 summit.
It was the first time heads of state from the three nations were not been present since the establishment of the G20 in 1999.
_G20 정상회의03.jpeg)
_G20 정상회의.jpg)
_G20 정상회의04.jpeg)
_한-UAE 03.jpg)
_한-터키.jpg)
