Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon will embark on a three-nation trip next week that will take him to the Middle East and South America in a span of nine days. 

Lee will leave for Kuwait on Tuesday, where he will meet with the country’s top leaders, including Prime Minister Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and Emir Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

Scheduled to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the countries' formal ties, his four-day visit will include discussions aimed at expanding South Korea’s roles in Kuwait’s long-term national development plan called Vision 2035 and further developing their comprehensive, future-oriented and reciprocal partnership. 

For three days from Saturday of next week, he will visit Colombia and meet with President Ivan Duque Marquez. Their agenda will include the possible launch of a strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries. 

On the last leg of his trip, Lee will visit Ecuador as the first South Korean prime minister to do so since the two countries formed diplomatic relations in 1962. He will hold a summit meeting with Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno and discuss measures to strengthen bilateral cooperation in various areas, including infrastructure and alternative energy. 

After wrapping up his official visits, Lee will drop by the U.S. on May eighth and ninth on his way back to attend the completion ceremony of a Lotte Chemical plant in Louisiana.