President Lee: "We Owe Canada a Great Debt… Much Room for Cooperation"

President Lee Jae-myung, who is visiting Évian, France, to attend the Group of Seven (G7) summit, held a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on June 16 (local time).

President Lee stated, "Canada and the Republic of Korea have shared a very deep bond since the Korean War. We owe a great debt to Canada," adding, "We are now like-minded nations with a mutually beneficial relationship."

He continued, "Our bilateral relations are developing significantly," and added, "As there is much we can cooperate on, I hope we can discuss how to further concretize our cooperation today."

In response, Prime Minister Carney noted that the relationship between the two countries has continued to develop since he visited Korea and met with President Lee at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju last October.

Prime Minister Carney assessed, "The partnership between our two countries has continued to grow. We have strengthened cooperation in various fields, including defense, investment, and culture."

The two leaders held in-depth discussions on ways to enhance bilateral cooperation during the subsequent closed-door meeting.

In particular, as the meeting took place amidst intense competition for Canada's next-generation submarine project, attention is focused on whether the topic was addressed.

Currently, South Korea's Hanwha Ocean is in final competition with Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) for the Canadian next-generation submarine project, which is valued at up to 60 trillion won.

The announcement of the project contractor is expected around the end of June.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.