South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a summit Monday and agreed to expand economic cooperation in the defense, nuclear energy, bio and other fields to deepen the two countries’ strategic partnership.
During the talks held at the presidential palace in Ankara, Lee described Turkey as a “brotherly nation” for having fought alongside South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, and expressed hope to strengthen the bilateral strategic partnership into a more “future-looking, mutually beneficial” relationship.
He highlighted Turkey’s Altay main battle tank program, based on South Korea’s K2 tank technology, as an example of the two nations’ cooperative ties, and expressed hope to create “more success stories” to further strengthen their defense industries.
“We agreed to continue cooperation based on mutual trust in joint production, technological collaboration and personnel training exchanges, among others, as we work toward emerging as leading defense industry powers,” Lee said in a joint press briefing.
In the energy sector, Lee highlighted South Korea’s advanced nuclear energy capabilities as part of efforts to support the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. in its bid for Turkey’s upcoming nuclear power plant project in Sinop on the Black Sea coast.
On the sidelines of the summit, the two nations’ state-run power operators signed a memorandum of understanding covering cooperation in technology, site evaluation, licensing and regulatory procedures, financial packages and business models.
Lee said both governments agreed to support the remaining evaluation process for Turkey’s nuclear power project as planned and agreed upon.
“I look forward to Korea’s outstanding nuclear technology and operational safety capabilities contributing substantially to the development of Turkey’s nuclear energy,” he said.
Lee also pointed to Korean company SK Plasma’s participation in the Turkish government’s blood-product project, as well as the Canakkale Bridge and the Eurasia Undersea Tunnel projects involving Korean companies, expressing hope of building further momentum in these sectors.
The two leaders also agreed to deepen strategic collaboration in emerging areas, including renewable energy, artificial intelligence and digital technologies.
Lee welcomed the signing of an MOU between Korea’s CS Wind and Turkey’s Enerjisa on wind-power cooperation, saying it would further strengthen renewable energy partnerships.
During the talks, the two leaders discussed the security situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the Middle East and voiced support for each other’s peace efforts.
Lee expressed appreciation for Turkey’s support for his government’s North Korea policy and praised Erdogan’s efforts to promote regional stability, pledging to expand South Korea’s humanitarian assistance to help address the Syrian refugee situation in Turkey. (Yonhap)
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