South Korea's Lee to host Central Asia summit in Seoul next week

SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on Friday he would host the first South Korea-Central Asia summit next week, bringing together the leaders of five Central Asian countries as Seoul seeks to deepen economic and strategic ties with the resource-rich region.

“Through this summit, relations between South Korea and Central Asia will be consolidated into a leader-level multilateral cooperation framework, and the New Northern Policy we have pursued is expected to gain momentum,” Lee said in televised remarks ahead of a presidential meeting.

Earlier on Friday, the presidential Blue House said Lee will host the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in Seoul on Wednesday afternoon for talks on expanding cooperation.

Lee is scheduled to hold separate bilateral meetings with each of the five Central Asian leaders from September 14 to September 16 ahead of the joint summit, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said.

The summit will be the first leader-level multilateral meeting between South Korea and the five Central Asian nations and is aimed at strengthening cooperation in areas including trade, investment, energy, critical minerals and supply chains, Kang said.

Seoul’s New Northern Policy, launched under former President Moon Jae-in, aims to deepen economic, energy and infrastructure ties with Central Asia and other Eurasian partners.