President Yoon Suk Yeol held a summit with French President Emmanuel Macron on the second day of his visit to France and agreed to step up cooperation in cutting edge technology and future strategic industries.

In a joint press release before the meeting at Élysée Palace in Paris on Tuesday, Yoon said that bilateral cooperation in such sectors must expand as the current world faces uncertainties and a complex crisis.

He said that in the summit, he and Macron would discuss promoting substantial economic cooperation and coordination in establishing stable supply chains, while also exploring collaborative efforts in the aviation and space sectors.

Yoon said that South Korea, as a responsible member of the global community, seeks to contribute to the development of a free, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific and to that end, will closely cooperate with France, a European pioneer of Indo-Pacific strategies.

On North Korea, President Yoon said the regime's nuclear and missile threats pose a challenge to the Korean Peninsula, Northeast Asia and global peace.

He declared that Seoul will seek to spend its upcoming term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council cooperating with permanent member France to address those challenges, to which Macron offered his congratulations on the election and promised to provide support at the UN to resolutely respond to the North Korean nuclear crisis in accordance with international law.

Yoon also said that his country will join hands with France and the international community to actively support peace and reconstruction efforts in Ukraine.

Calling France an old friend and true ally, he noted that the country came to the rescue when South Korea's freedom and peace were under threat during the Korean War.

Paying tribute to the more than 34-hundred French troops who fought in a war in a foreign land, Yoon said they will never be forgotten and thanks to them, South Korea has been able to develop into an economic powerhouse known for K-pop and movies such as "Parasite." 

He also asked the French president and people to support the bid by the South Korean city of Busan to host the 2030 World Expo.

Yoon said that the city, filled with refugees during the Korean War, has now become an international seaport boasting the second-largest transshipment volume in the world and that hosting the Expo will provide a platform for global companies to create new business through exchanges.

The summit, following the press statement, will be held over lunch, which will then be followed by a one-on-one for another 30 minutes with a minimum number of attendees present.

Meeting with Macron, President Yoon has now held summit talks with every leader of the Group of Seven nations and the European Union in the span of two months.

Right after the summit, Yoon will attend the general assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions, the organization that oversees the Expo, to promote Busan's bid with a speech delivered in English.