President Lee Jae-myung arrived at Ankara Esenboğa Airport in Turkey on Tuesday (local time) to attend the NATO summit.
Lee is scheduled to spend two days in Turkey for the NATO summit before making a three-day state visit to Mongolia, returning home July 11.
The trip comes roughly 20 days after he wrapped up a G7 tour last month. Lee aims to use the NATO meetings to lay the groundwork for building defense industry supply chains with alliance member states, which together account for 55 percent of global defense spending and represent the world's largest defense market.
A key item on the agenda is the NATO Defence Industry Forum, which Lee will attend Tuesday afternoon.
The forum brings together more than 1,000 senior officials from the governments, defense industries and financial sectors of NATO member and partner states, and has been part of the summit's official program since last year.
By attending the forum, Lee intends to personally showcase the strengths of South Korea's defense industry and its rapid procurement capabilities, as part of a broader push to propel the country into the ranks of the world's top four defense exporters.
Lee also aims to signal the defense investment commitments of NATO member and partner states, encourage greater financial-sector investment in the defense industry, and foster inter-governmental and inter-company cooperation to strengthen defense capabilities and deterrence.
To that end, Lee will join the forum's fourth session as a panelist — themed "Shared Values, Stronger Industrial Base: Expanding Partnerships and Cooperation" — and deliver a presentation on "Defense Industry Solidarity between South Korea and NATO."
After concluding his NATO schedule, Lee will travel to Mongolia on Wednesday evening for a state visit — the fastest any South Korean administration has made such a trip within its first year in office. During the summit in Mongolia, Lee is expected to hold wide-ranging discussions on cooperation over critical minerals.
sang@heraldcorp.com
