South Korean President Lee Jae-myung Meets with Asian Development Bank President, Plans to Expand Cooperation in Critical Minerals, AI, and Nuclear Power

Recently, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung met with Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Masato Kanda, and the two sides reached multiple consensus points on deepening cooperation. This meeting was prompted by diplomatic interactions between South Korea and Central Asian leaders, and both sides proposed combining South Korea's technological strengths with the ADB's financial instruments to jointly expand cooperation space in the Asia-Pacific region.

On the day of the meeting, President Lee Jae-myung received President Kanda at his office at 11 a.m. This visit coincided with Kanda's attendance at the South Korea-Uzbekistan summit and the first South Korea-Central Asia summit. Kang Yoo-jung, Chief Spokesperson of the Blue House, stated in a written briefing that this meeting served as an important exchange platform between South Korea and the ADB in the fields of energy and technology.

Lee Jae-myung first pointed out that Central Asia possesses enormous growth potential thanks to its abundant natural resources and advantageous geographical location. He took this opportunity to propose expanding cooperation between South Korea and the Asian Development Bank, hoping to combine the strengths of both sides to achieve mutual benefit and win-win outcomes.

Regarding the critical minerals supply chain, Lee Jae-myung particularly emphasized that in order to ensure the stability of the critical minerals supply chain in Central Asia, represented by Uzbekistan, the Asian Development Bank—which possesses rich project experience and financial strength—and South Korea should strengthen cooperation. President Kanda noted that the critical minerals supply chain is precisely a key area of support for the Asian Development Bank, and he expressed a positive willingness to cooperate with South Korea, which has industrial capabilities.

On the topic of artificial intelligence, Lee Jae-myung introduced South Korea's vision of "AI for All" and its efforts in global AI development. He emphasized that if South Korea's AI capabilities could be combined with the Asian Development Bank's development expertise, significant results would certainly be achieved in the Asia-Pacific region. President Kanda commented that despite the uncertain global economic situation, South Korea's economy has continued to demonstrate outstanding performance, and he expressed admiration for Lee Jae-myung's "astonishing leadership" in the AI and digital fields.

Regarding energy infrastructure, both sides agreed to further expand cooperation. Lee Jae-myung stated that both sides will work together to ensure that South Korea's technology and experience can be applied to Asia-Pacific energy infrastructure expansion projects being promoted by the Asian Development Bank, such as the ASEAN Power Grid. At the same time, South Korea will increase its investment in financial support policies for the nuclear power sector to provide strong guarantees for related projects.

President Masato Kanda also extended his best wishes for the upcoming South Korea-Central Asia summit. He stated that both sides look forward to the complete success of this meeting and that it will lay a solid foundation for deepening South Korea-ADB cooperation in multiple fields. As an important prelude to the first South Korea-Central Asia summit, this meeting is regarded as an important step in promoting regional economic integration and technological cooperation.

This meeting not only created new opportunities for South Korean enterprises to expand into overseas markets, but also injected new momentum into the Asia-Pacific region's energy transition and digital development. In-depth cooperation between the two sides under this framework is expected to bring broader development dividends to the entire Asia-Pacific region.