President Lee Reunites with Trump After Three Weeks ... Follow-up Talks Held on Military Shipbuilding

[Financial News, Ankara, Turkey = Reporter Seong Seok-woo]President Lee Jae Myung met with U.S. President Donald Trump at a NATO dinner and held follow-up talks on military shipbuilding. The two leaders agreed to continue working-level consultations to review concrete cooperation measures based on the shipbuilding capabilities of South Korean companies. Their meeting came three weeks after they last saw each other at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Evian, France, last month.
Blue House senior spokesperson Kang Yoo-jung said in a written briefing on the 8th local time that President Lee attended a reception and welcome dinner hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife in Ankara, Turkey, the previous evening, where he spoke with President Trump and other NATO leaders.
The two leaders also held follow-up discussions on the military shipbuilding issue that Trump had raised at last month's G7 summit in Evian, France.
Lee said he would cooperate as much as possible with Trump's request and introduced South Korean companies with strong shipbuilding capabilities. The two sides agreed to continue working-level talks to examine specific options.
They also revisited the golf meeting they had promised during the G7 summit. The two leaders agreed to push ahead with Lee's visit to the United States at an appropriate time and to arrange a golf round on that occasion as well.
At the dinner, Lee also spoke with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who was seated next to him. The two leaders referred to the Korean Cultural Center of Cervantes, which opened in June last year, and the Camino de Santiago, a popular destination for South Korean tourists, saying that cultural and people-to-people exchanges form the foundation of Korea-Spain relations.
The two leaders also exchanged views on major regional situations, including the Korean Peninsula and the Middle East, as well as global issues. In particular, they agreed on the need for like-minded countries that share values such as a rules-based international order and multilateralism to stand together with other middle powers as global uncertainty deepens. Lee invited Sánchez to visit South Korea, and Sánchez also invited Lee to visit Spain.
Lee discussed energy cooperation with Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, including wind power and nuclear energy. With Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajić, he exchanged views on ways for South Korean companies to participate in infrastructure projects such as Montenegro airports.
He also met with Turkish officials as the host country of this NATO summit. Lee agreed with Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz and Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş to deepen cooperation in a wide range of fields, including security, the economy, digital affairs, and people-to-people exchanges, and to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries.
Lee also greeted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Romanian President Nicușor Dan, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, Icelandic Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir, and Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
west@fnnews.com Seong Seok-woo Reporter