President Yoon Suk Yeol met with the visiting deputy prime minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, on Thursday.

Referring to Qatar as Korea's core partner nation in the Middle East, particularly in the energy and the construction sectors, President Yoon suggested that the two countries expand bilateral cooperation to various other areas, such as climate change and food security.

In response, Mohammed, who also serves as Qatar's foreign minister, spoke highly of the contribution by South Korean companies to Qatar's economic and social development through infrastructure construction and other projects, and voiced a desire for the two countries to further deepen bilateral cooperation.

The two sides also expressed hope that the South Korea-Qatar visa exemption agreement signed on Wednesday would boost various forms of reciprocal visits and people-to-people exchanges.