Leaders of S. Korea, India set for bilateral summit

SEOUL, Feb 21, 2019, Yonhap. South Korean President Moon Jae-in was set to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday for talks on ways to further improve the countries’ bilateral relationship, reported the Yonhap.

The Indian prime minister was set to arrive here later in the day on a two-day state visit, according to Moon’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

Moon and Modi will hold summit talks on Friday.

Modi’s trip will reciprocate Moon’s state visit to India last year. He will also be the first foreign leader to make a state visit to South Korea this year.

“The two leaders will discuss ways to further improve the countries’ special strategic partnership and expand their bilateral cooperation to infrastructure, science and technology, space development and the defense industry,” Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said earlier.

The countries upgraded their bilateral ties to a special strategic partnership during Moon’s trip to New Delhi in July. They established their diplomatic ties in 1973.

Modi’s visit is widely expected to highlight economic cooperation between South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, and India, which is one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

“India is the world’s second-most populous nation and sixth-largest economy that continues to maintain a high growth rate of about 7 percent,” Cheong Wa Dae said earlier.

India is also a key nation in South Korea’s New Southern Policy, one of two major foreign policies of the Moon Jae-in administration that seeks to promote regional cooperation with South Asian countries, as well as the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Under the new foreign policy, South Korea has also agreed to double its trade with ASEAN countries to over US$200 billion by 2020.