President Lee concludes tour focused on AI supply chains, key minerals, and trade cooperation

President Lee Jae-myung has concluded an extensive 7-day, 11-day international tour, encompassing the United States, three South American countries, and Germany. The trip, which wrapped up with a diaspora gathering in Frankfurt, Germany, was strategically focused on economic diplomacy, aiming to establish robust AI supply chain networks, secure vital mineral resources, and broaden trade collaborations.

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This year marks the 60th anniversary since our先輩 nurses first set foot at Frankfurt Airport in 1966. Seeing you all here fills me with emotion.

A significant outcome of the tour was the forging of semiconductor cooperation agreements worth $950 billion with leading US tech executives, including Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Hock Tan of Broadcom, Sam Altman of OpenAI, and Dario Amodei of Anthropic. President Lee also engaged with major Silicon Valley venture capital firms to encourage investment in South Korean startups. This initiative is considered a cornerstone of the administration's major projects, seeking global technological and investment partnerships.

In South America, President Lee met with the leaders of Brazil, Chile, and Argentina to bolster global supply chain cooperation. A notable achievement was the signing of a "Joint Statement on Critical Strategic Minerals" with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, promising cooperation on resources like rare earths, for which Brazil ranks second globally in reserves. Memoranda of understanding on supply chains were also signed with Chile and Argentina, countries holding top global reserves of lithium and copper.

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Our companies are piloting the import of Argentine crude oil this year, and based on this, we plan to begin crude oil imports next year. The governments of both countries have agreed to cooperate to ensure stable imports starting next year.

The tour also secured a commitment for South Korea to import crude oil from Argentina, with an initial trial volume of 880,000 barrels planned for this year, leading to stable imports starting next year. This agreement was facilitated by a bilateral government commitment to ensure steady supply. Furthermore, the trip paved the way for resuming trade agreement negotiations between South Korea and Mercosur, a bloc including Brazil and Argentina, potentially opening a vast market of 280 million consumers. Discussions also began on modernizing the South Korea-Chile Free Trade Agreement, first signed in 2004, with the re-establishment of a joint trade committee after a decade.

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If the Korea-Mercosur trade agreement is finalized, it will open a smooth export channel for our products to a vast market of 280 million people.