President Lee Jae-myung will attend his first North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit since taking office. As Lee is expected to promote "K-defense" to NATO members, which are considered the largest defense market, political circles are watching closely to see whether he can achieve tangible results.
Lee will begin a four-night, five-day diplomatic schedule Sunday to attend the NATO summit and make a state visit to Mongolia. He will first attend the summit held in Ankara, Turkey, on June 7-8 at the invitation of NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Lee had also considered attending the NATO summit held in The Hague, Netherlands, last year but did not participate due to instability in the Middle East and other factors.
The most anticipated outcome of this NATO summit is undoubtedly in defense. NATO members, which account for 55% of global defense spending, have been significantly increasing their military budgets amid a series of recent wars and security concerns. For South Korea, which possesses world-class defense technology, a new window of opportunity has opened. During the summit, Lee will meet Rutte for the first time and attend a defense forum, delivering a keynote speech and participating in a panel discussion to promote the competitiveness of K-defense.
Wi Sung-lac, director of the National Security Office, stressed, "We will establish a full-fledged foothold for entering the world's largest NATO defense market and building a robust defense supply chain." He added, "We will directly inform NATO allies and partner nations of the excellence and rapid procurement capabilities of K-defense and secure concrete cooperation paths toward becoming one of the world's top four defense exporters." He continued, "Based on trust-building at the summit level, we will also work together to establish an institutional foundation so that our defense companies can be stably integrated into the NATO supply chain."
Also drawing anticipation is Rutte's specific reference to South Korea as having "a fantastic defense base." In an interview with the British daily Financial Times (FT) on May 30, he noted that some European allies "are buying weapons from South Korea" as delays in weapons deliveries to Europe occurred due to the impact of recent Middle East conflicts. He also said, "I love South Korea," and explained, "Of course, the reason they buy South Korean weapons is that even if they want to buy products from NATO members, NATO's current defense production cannot support this." Attention is focused on whether the summit will serve as an opportunity to dramatically expand defense cooperation with Europe.
After completing the NATO summit schedule, Lee will carry out a state visit to Mongolia on June 9-11. The visit to Mongolia was also arranged at the invitation of Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh. Mongolia is known to have continuously requested a visit since Lee took office. This will be the first state visit to Mongolia by a South Korean head of state in 15 years, since the Lee Myung-bak government in 2011.
Through the Korea-Mongolia summit, the government plans to discuss areas of cooperation that provide practical benefits, including critical minerals, food security, response to yellow dust, and health and science and technology. In particular, as Mongolia maintains friendly relations with North Korea, the government plans to seek measures that could create conditions for resuming dialogue with North Korea through this visit. Notably, with demand for Korean products growing in Mongolia alongside the spread of K-culture, cultural cooperation measures are also expected to be discussed.
