President Lee Jae-myung will consecutively invite the heads of state of Türkiye and Timor-Leste this week to hold summit talks. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Türkiye will meet with President Lee on the 3rd, and President José Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste will meet with him on the 6th to discuss ways to expand cooperation. These back-to-back summits are expected to serve as opportunities to deepen relations with Türkiye, a strategic economic and security partner, and to strengthen friendly ties with Timor-Leste, a development cooperation partner in the Indo-Pacific region. This article outlines the leaders' schedules and agendas for their visits to Korea, as well as the significance of this diplomatic itinerary.
1. Schedule and Format of Visits to Korea
Presidential Senior Spokesperson Kang Yu-jung officially announced the two leaders' visit plans through a written briefing on the 1st.
- President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Türkiye: He will visit Korea for three days from November 2 to 4 as a state visit. The summit meeting with President Lee is scheduled to take place on the 3rd.
- President José Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste: At President Lee's invitation, he will visit Korea for three days from November 5 to 7 as an official visit. The summit meeting will be held on the 6th.
2. Türkiye: Deepening Strategic Cooperation Through a State Visit
President Erdoğan's state visit marks the first time in eight years, since 2018. It serves as a return visit following President Lee Jae-myung's state visit to Türkiye last November, bringing the two leaders together again after about a year.
The two leaders plan to focus on discussing ways to deepen cooperation in areas such as nuclear power, the defense industry, and future industries during this summit. This aims to further solidify the strategic economic and security cooperation relationship between South Korea and Türkiye.
3. Timor-Leste: Discussing Practical Cooperation in Diplomacy, Security, and Education
The summit meeting with President Horta will focus on expanding practical cooperation, particularly in the diplomacy, security, and education sectors.
Timor-Leste is a relatively young nation that gained independence in 2002 and has maintained friendly relations with South Korea, including ties stemming from its participation in the Korean War 1. Through this summit, the two countries are expected to expand their development cooperation partnership in the Indo-Pacific region and explore possibilities for support in people-to-people exchanges and infrastructure building, especially in the education sector.
4. Diplomatic Implications of Back-to-Back Summit Diplomacy
The two leaders' visits to Korea throughout the week are assessed as one of the key diplomatic moves by the Lee Jae-myung administration. The government aims to broaden the scope of strategic and economic cooperation with Türkiye, including nuclear power and defense industries, through the summit talks with Ankara. Simultaneously, it seeks to diversify its diplomatic network by strengthening development cooperation and educational partnerships with Timor-Leste through their bilateral talks.
It remains to be seen what tangible cooperative outcomes will result from these back-to-back summits, which aim to deepen existing strategic partnerships on one hand and strengthen solidarity with developing nations on the other.
