President Lee Jae-myung, on a tour of the United States and three South American nations, wrapped up his two-day visit to Chile and departed on the 30th for Argentina, his final South American destination. It marks the first visit to Argentina by a South Korean president in 22 years.
Lee departed that afternoon from Arturo Merino Benítez Airport in Santiago aboard Air Force One. Kang Yu-jung, senior presidential spokesperson, said in a written briefing, "President Lee will arrive in Buenos Aires late on the night of the 30th and begin a three-day official visit to Argentina."
On the morning of the 31st, Lee will first hold a summit with President Javier Milei, followed by a meeting in the afternoon with Buenos Aires Mayor Macri. A dinner gathering with members of the Korean community in Argentina is scheduled afterward.
The talks are expected to focus on economic security cooperation in areas such as critical minerals, energy and food. In particular, efforts are likely to concentrate on launching negotiations for a Korea-Mercosur (Southern Common Market) trade agreement, aimed at gaining access to the vast market of 300 million people and 3 trillion dollars in gross domestic product (GDP) that includes South America's key nations.
Kang said, "The two countries plan to strengthen cooperation in practical fields that citizens and businesses can feel, such as defense, science and technology, Antarctica, culture and education, and to fully reactivate high-level exchanges and intergovernmental consultative bodies to support this."
Meanwhile, before departing for Argentina, Lee said on X (formerly Twitter), "I am setting off for Argentina, a country full of the passion of tango and love for football," adding, "I will gather wisdom so that we can once again confirm the potential the two countries hold and lead it to tangible results that citizens and businesses can feel." He continued, "I have heard that the name of the lithium development project our companies are pursuing in Argentina is 'Golden Salt,'" and said, "I hope that through this summit, cooperation between our two countries will also bear fruit as precious and shining as gold."
