President Lee Jae-myung begins three days of back-to-back bilateral summits with the leaders of five Central Asian nations starting on the 14th, opening a round of relay summit diplomacy aimed at the region. On the 16th, the president will chair the First Korea-Central Asia Summit in Seoul. It marks the first time South Korea and Central Asian countries have held a multilateral summit.
Presidential chief spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a written briefing that the president will hold talks with the leaders of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, beginning with Uzbekistan.
Through the summit diplomacy, the president plans to elevate strategic cooperation with Central Asia to the leaders' level and build a foundation for mutually beneficial growth that links the region's development needs with South Korea's strategy for expanding supply chains and markets. The government also aims to produce tangible results from its New Northern Policy and diplomatic diversification efforts, and to secure Central Asian support on Korean Peninsula issues. "By building the foundation for a sustainable regional partnership that goes beyond one-off summit diplomacy, we plan to translate this into tangible results for implementing the New Northern Policy and diversifying diplomacy," Kang said.
The first item on the schedule is a summit with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on the same day. The two leaders will discuss ways to expand economic cooperation in areas including transport and infrastructure, and 13 agreements and memorandums of understanding between government ministries will be exchanged in their presence. Uzbekistan is a key partner in transport and infrastructure development projects and the most populous emerging market in Central Asia, and the two countries plan to broaden the scope of their cooperation.
On the 15th, the president will meet Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev separately. On the morning of the 16th, the president will hold summits with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov.
That afternoon in Seoul, the president will chair the summit under the theme "Directions for Korea-Central Asia Cooperation and a Partnership for Strengthening Innovation, Prosperity and Connectivity." The government plans to elevate to the leaders' level a cooperation framework that has been maintained at the ministerial level through the Korea-Central Asia Cooperation Forum launched in 2007, and to present a mid- to long-term vision for cooperation through a "Seoul Declaration."
