Lee Jae-myung to Travel to France Next Week for Summit With Macron

President Lee Jae-myung is preparing to travel to France next week for a state visit that will include a bilateral summit with French President Emmanuel Macron, the presidential office announced Friday. The trip, running from Sunday to Wednesday, comes at Macron's invitation following his own visit to Seoul in April, and coincides with the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

According to National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac, Lee will begin the journey in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, where he will co-chair the Lumiere Summit on the future of cinema alongside Macron on Monday. He will then travel to Paris for a two-day state visit starting Tuesday, highlighted by a one-on-one luncheon with Macron followed by formal summit talks and an evening banquet at the Elysee Palace hosted by the French president and his wife, Brigitte Macron.

Beyond the leaders' talks, Lee's itinerary includes a business roundtable bringing together roughly 20 companies from both nations, along with separate meetings with Yael Braun-Pivet, speaker of the French National Assembly, and Mathias Cormann, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Wi said the visit is expected to yield tangible cooperation across security, the economy, science and technology, culture and people-to-people exchange, describing it as a chance to deepen the "global strategic partnership" the two countries forged earlier this year. He added that Seoul intends to expand collaboration with Paris in artificial intelligence, space, nuclear energy and biotechnology, calling France a leader in industries of the future.

"We will thoroughly prepare for the trip so it can serve as a new starting point that lays the solid foundation for another 140 years of relations," Wi said, underscoring the symbolic weight officials are placing on the anniversary visit.

A presidential official later indicated that the summit agenda could extend to cooperation on nuclear power plant construction as well as discussions on a potential troop deployment to the Strait of Hormuz, suggesting the talks will touch on sensitive security matters alongside economic and cultural cooperation.

The France trip marks the latest stop in Lee's increasingly active summit diplomacy since taking office, as he seeks to broaden Seoul's engagement with key European partners amid a rapidly shifting global order.