Mr. Lee Jae Myung spent 11 days traveling to the US, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Germany. The places he visited were geographically very far from South Korea.
In the US, Mr. Lee Jae Myung did not meet US President Donald Trump, that is, he did not pay an official visit to the US, but met with the giants of the US high-tech industry such as Nvidia, OpenAI, Anthropic or Broadcom... and attended a large conference on artificial intelligence held in San Francisco.
His purpose is to enhance South Korea's position and role in the global value chain created from artificial intelligence and new generation chip manufacturing. This position and role increases the weight of South Korea's economy and high technology level, while helping to minimize South Korea's current level of dependence on external partners in economy, trade and high technology in general and in the above 2 aspects in particular.
Mr. Lee Jae Myung also did not officially visit Germany but only stopped to meet the Korean community staying in this country and its vicinity.
South America is the second most important part of Mr. Lee Jae Myung's foreign tour. Economic cooperation and trade exchange, ensuring the supply chain and supply of raw materials between South Korea and Brazil, Chile and Argentina are key contents on the agenda along with the establishment of a partnership between South Korea and the Mercosur bloc. Brazil and Argentina are sent by the Mercosur bloc to represent negotiations with South Korea on this plan.
It can be seen that Mr. Lee Jae Myung's purpose is to promote bilateral partnerships, diversify economic, trade and supply chain partnerships as well as have more and more practical access to the global South. This is a very practical and timely approach to balancing South Korea's relations with the US and Western countries with economies in the global South.
The visit also clearly revealed the main pillars in Mr. Lee Jae Myung's foreign policy. This person linked strategic autonomy with balancing foreign relations, strengthening traditional alliances with the US and maintaining stable economic and trade cooperation relations with China, while reducing South Korea's dependence on relations with these two partners. Mr. Lee Jae Myung identified foreign affairs as serving South Korea's economic prosperity, focusing on diversifying economic and trade partners, ensuring a supply chain network of vital importance to South Korea and ensuring national sovereignty in high technology.
Mr. Lee Jae Myung is not to let South Korea be tied down in alliances or linkages, but always keeps room for cooperation with all partners who are said to be able to bring prosperity back to South Korea.
