Video

[Anchor]

President Lee Jae-myung, currently on a tour of South America, held a summit with the President of Argentina and agreed to cooperate on crude oil imports and expanding supply chains for critical minerals such as lithium. The presidential office assessed that this tour has established a cooperative framework for critical minerals, which are essential materials for future AI industries.

Reporting from Buenos Aires, this is Kang Cheongwan.

[Reporter]

President Javier Milei warmly greets President Lee Jae-myung upon his arrival at the Casa Rosada, the Argentine presidential palace.

[Nice to meet you.]

This marks the first visit to Argentina by a South Korean president in 22 years. During their 1.30-hour summit, the main agenda focused on raw material cooperation, including crude oil and critical minerals.

To ensure stability in crude oil supply and demand and to expand supply chains, the South Korean government decided to import crude oil from Argentina starting next year.

[Wi Sung-lak / Director of National Security: We have introduced Argentine crude oil on a test basis this year, and both governments agreed to cooperate to ensure that the scheduled crude oil imports from next year proceed smoothly.]

A memorandum of understanding on critical minerals cooperation was also signed between the two countries, which includes South Korean companies jointly mining lithium, an essential raw material for semiconductors and batteries for which Argentina holds the world's fourth-largest reserves.

During the summit, President Lee emphasized that "speed is important" and proposed accelerating cooperation, to which President Milei responded that "tens of thousands of regulatory reforms have been carried out" and there would be no problem with speed, according to the presidential office.

The presidential office highlighted the establishment of supply chains for critical minerals essential to the AI industry, such as rare earths and lithium, as one of the key outcomes of this three-nation South American tour covering Brazil, Chile, and Argentina.

[Wi Sung-lak / Director of National Security: We have firmly solidified a state-to-state cooperative framework to secure critical minerals that are vital across the entire AI supply chain, including semiconductors.]

President Lee is scheduled to travel to Germany, the final stop of his current tour, to meet with overseas Koreans before heading home.

(Camera: Jung Sang-bo | Video Editing: Lee Seung-hee | Design: Park Cheon-woong)