President Yoon Suk Yeol held a number of summits with world leaders after arriving in New York on Monday to attend the UN General Assembly as he sought to drum up support for South Korea’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo in Busan.

The presidential plane carrying Yoon and his entourage landed at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York in the morning.

Right after his arrival, the president held a series of bilateral summits with the leaders of Sri Lanka, San Marino, Montenegro, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Burundi and Turkmenistan seeking support for Busan’s bid to host the 2030 Expo.

In the meeting with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe in the afternoon, Yoon asked for the country’s backing for the Expo bid and the two exchanged opinions on ways to develop bilateral relations.

Yoon expressed hope that the two nations will cooperate in the areas of development, labor, climate change responses, trade and investment with the goal of a long-term partnership.

Yoon said that South Korea will continue to seek cooperative projects that contribute to the creation of jobs for young people, such as the South Korea-Sri Lanka vocational training center.

The two leaders decided to quickly conclude a bilateral climate change cooperation agreement that is currently being negotiated.

President Yoon then held a summit with Alessandro Scarano and Adele Tonnini, the two heads of San Marino, and discussed bilateral cooperation in tourism.

During his six-day trip, Yoon plans to engage in summit talks with over 30 state leaders in a last-minute push to promote Busan’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo before an expected decision by the overseeing committee in November.