President Lee Jae-myung, who set out on a tour of two countries, arrived in Türkiye on the 7th local time. Starting with a meeting with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Lee will also attend the NATO summit schedule.
According to the Blue House, Lee arrived at Ankara Esenboga Airport at about 1:25 p.m. that day. After the meeting with Secretary-General Rutte, Lee is scheduled to hold a small-group meeting with representatives of the Indo-Pacific partners (IP4), including Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
This NATO summit schedule will focus on the defense industry. NATO member states, which account for 55% of global defense spending, are increasing their defense budgets due to security jitters following the Middle East war after the Russia-Ukraine war. The government, having formed a defense industry consultative body with NATO and held multiple rounds of meetings, expects to produce results on the occasion of this summit.
The defense industry forum, which has been held as an official NATO summit event since last year, will bring together about 1,000 senior figures from NATO allies and partner governments, the defense industry and the financial sector this year. In Session 4 of the forum, under the theme "Shared values, a stronger industrial base," Lee will deliver a keynote presentation and join a panel discussion. He plans to promote the excellence of Korea's defense industry and engage with key government and corporate stakeholders from NATO allies.
Chief Presidential Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said, "Lee will stress that the Republic of Korea is a partner that has built up defense industry capabilities together with NATO based on shared values, and will propose elevating cooperation beyond defense industry transactions of weapons systems to a 'Defense Industry Partnership 2.0' to co-develop and co-use."
After the defense industry forum, Lee will wrap up the first day of the NATO summit with an official welcome dinner hosted by Türkiye President Erdogan and the first lady. The next day, he is arranging multiple bilateral meetings, focusing on countries with strong practical cooperation needs, including defense. The government is set to concentrate on sales for Korea's defense corporations through brief meetings and encounters with leaders on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
Attention is also on whether a meaningful encounter will take place again with U.S. President Donald Trump during the NATO summit, three weeks after the Group of Seven (G7) summit on the 17th of last month. There is also interest in whether a first face-to-face meeting with Ukraine President Zelenskyy will come together.
Meanwhile, after concluding his NATO summit schedule, Lee will pay a state visit to Mongolia on the 9th. A Mongolia state visit by a Korean leader is the first in 15 years since the Lee Myung-bak administration in 2011.