Anchor: President Lee Jae Myung, who attended an extended session of the Group of Seven summit in Canada, engaged in full-fledged summit diplomacy on the fringes of the forum. Lee met with several world leaders, including Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. 
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met on the sidelines of the Group of Seven(G7) summit in Canada, where discussions focused on ways to advance bilateral relations.

At Tuesday’s summit, held just two weeks after Lee took office, the two leaders agreed to step up trilateral security cooperation with the U.S. while strengthening bilateral cooperation in response to various geopolitical crises, including North Korea issues.

According to Seoul’s presidential office, the leaders reaffirmed their resolve to resume “shuttle diplomacy” and agreed to lay the groundwork for a more solid, mature relationship as the two countries celebrate the 60th anniversary of the normalization of bilateral ties.

The South Korean leader also held a one-on-one with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and suggested accelerating bilateral efforts to revise their free trade agreement(FTA). 

Starmer talked about enhancing cooperation to modernize the bilateral FTA, as well as defense cooperation.

The two sides agreed to work together closely to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, resolve the North Korean nuclear issue, establish peace in Ukraine, and rebuild the country after the war with Russia.

During Lee’s talks with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the two agreed to reinforce two-way cooperation on security, defense, energy security, climate change and artificial intelligence.

In particular, Lee stressed security and defense industry cooperation with the G7 host nation, mentioning South Korean shipbuilders’ interest in participating in a submarine project for Ottawa worth between 20 billion and 24 billion U.S. dollars.

Lee called for efforts to enhance bilateral ties during talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the two countries mark the tenth anniversary of their special strategic partnership, and discussed economic cooperation and the climate crisis with his Mexican and Brazilian counterparts.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.