Türkiye and South Korea signed four cooperation agreements on Nov. 3 as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung discussed steps toward their $15 billion bilateral trade target.
“We discussed steps to bring our bilateral trade, which exceeded $11 billion last year, to our previously set target of $15 billion in a balanced and sustainable way,” Erdoğan said at a joint news conference after the talks.
The agreements cover science, technology and innovation; natural resources and mining; energy cooperation; and nuclear power project financing.
The nuclear financing memorandum was signed between Türkiye Nuclear Energy Inc. and the Export-Import Bank of Korea.
The other three memorandums were signed between the countries’ relevant ministries.
Nuclear energy and mining were among the main topics of the talks, Erdoğan said, stressing the importance Türkiye attached to cooperation with South Korea.
In an interview with Yonhap published ahead of the talks, Erdoğan had identified South Korea as a potential partner for Türkiye’s planned nuclear power plant in Sinop. He said technical and economic conditions, including the investment model, remained under review.
Erdoğan also called for more joint defense projects, citing cooperation on the Fırtına howitzer and Altay tank as examples of the partnership’s results.
Lee described Türkiye as a brotherly country and said the two leaders had agreed to deepen defense industry cooperation.
He also highlighted the memorandum on nuclear power project financing.
On regional issues, Erdoğan reiterated Türkiye’s support for dialogue aimed at securing lasting peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
He said the two countries would strengthen cooperation in multilateral forums, including the United Nations and the G20.
