Ahead of the first South Korea-Central Asia Summit opening the day after tomorrow (the 16th), a series of consecutive summit talks with the five Central Asian nations will be held in Seoul.

Starting with a summit meeting with Uzbekistani President Shavkat Mirziyoyev today (the 14th), President Lee Jae-myung will meet successively with the leaders of the five countries attending the South Korea-Central Asia Summit.

Cheong Wa Dae expects the upcoming South Korea-Uzbekistan summit to further develop the "Special Strategic Partnership" between the two nations.

In particular, the plan is to broaden the horizon of cooperation—spanning transportation infrastructure, healthcare, response to the climate crisis, critical mineral supply chains, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation, and the defense industry—while jointly creating future growth engines.

President Lee will also explore various cooperative measures with each country through summit talks with the leaders of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan tomorrow (the 15th), and Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan the day after tomorrow (the 16th).

The South Korea-Central Asia Summit is the first multilateral summit hosted by the South Korean government with countries in the Central Asian region.

Through this summit, the government plans to elevate the cooperation framework, which has previously been maintained at the ministerial level, to the summit level, and adopt the "Seoul Declaration" to present a mid- to long-term vision for cooperation.

Following the summit, the South Korea-Central Asia Business Summit will be held, bringing together around 500 participants, including leaders of the participating nations as well as government and business officials.

(Photo provided by the Cheong Wa Dae Press Corps, Yonhap News)