President Lee Jae Myung on Thursday called for swift, "visible outcomes" from follow-up measures to last year’s South Korea-UAE joint declaration, which laid out wide-ranging cooperation, including defense and artificial intelligence.
Lee made the remarks during a meeting with Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, chair of Abu Dhabi’s Executive Affairs Authority and the UAE’s presidential envoy overseeing bilateral ties with South Korea, at Cheong Wa Dae.
“South Korea and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to build a relationship that will endure for the next hundred years — what we would call a lifelong partnership in Korean," Lee told Khaldoon. "I hope we can carefully review how to put that vision into practice and swiftly produce concrete, visible outcomes."
During the meeting, Lee expressed hopes for UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to visit South Korea as a state guest "in the near future" for more in-depth talks.
Saying that more concrete results would be forthcoming after such a visit, Lee said that the two sides have "made extensive preparations" on areas of potential cooperation.
The meeting was convened to follow up on the wide-ranging cooperation agreed upon during the Korea-UAE summit held during Lee’s visit to the UAE last November, covering areas such as artificial intelligence, semiconductors, civilian nuclear energy and defense and arms industries. At the time, the two leaders issued a joint declaration titled “A New Leap toward a Shared Journey for the Next Century between Korea and the UAE.”
Khaldoon told Lee that Mohamed has likewise stressed the importance of delivering visible results promptly.
“President Mohamed has also emphasized that it is important to produce as many tangible outcomes as possible in the shortest possible time,” Khaldoon said. “I will work closely with chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik — whom I regard as an older brother — to ensure that concrete results are delivered.”
Khaldoon also expressed appreciation for Lee’s invitation to Mohamed to visit South Korea.
“If the Korean side has dates that would be convenient, I will take those proposed dates back with me and do my utmost to adjust President Mohamed’s schedule so that a visit on those dates is possible,” Khaldoon said. “I will also make every effort to ensure that we can achieve many meaningful outcomes on that occasion.”
Thursday’s meeting was attended by Kang Hoon-sik, chief of staff; Wi Sung-lac, national security adviser; Ha Joon-kyung, senior presidential secretary for economic growth; Ha Jung-woo, senior presidential secretary for AI policy and future planning, among others.
Following the Korea-UAE summit in November, Seoul said the talks could boost Korean firms’ chances in defense export projects worth more than $15 billion, as the two sides agreed to expand cooperation beyond one-off sales to joint development, local production and co-exports to third countries.
Seoul also said it would take part in the UAE’s big-ticket “Stargate” initiative — an AI and energy infrastructure drive spanning large-scale AI data centers and the power-grid expansion required to operate them.
dagyumji@heraldcorp.com
