President Lee Jae Myung and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva agreed to elevate bilateral ties during their summit Monday and expand bilateral cooperation in the economy, space, the defense industry, critical minerals and other areas.
During the summit, Lee said the two leaders agreed to elevate the bilateral relations to a strategic partnership and adopted a four-year action plan to boost politics, the economy, practical cooperation and people-to-people exchanges.
"I and President Lula shared the consensus that the two countries should expand mutually beneficial economic cooperation," Lee said in a joint press announcement at Cheong Wa Dae.
Lee said he explained the need to promptly resume negotiations for a trade agreement between South Korea and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) that includes Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia, and Lula shared the consensus that the trade pact is an "urgent task."
South Korea launched free trade talks with the South American trade bloc in 2018 but has made little progress on key market opening issues.
