South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and French President Emmanuel Macron pledged on September 8 to deepen defense cooperation and coordinate on securing free passage through the Hormuz Strait. Their summit was the centerpiece event of Lee’s two-day state visit to France, which also produced new agreements on artificial intelligence, nuclear energy, and trade.
Lee laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe and took part in an official welcome ceremony before a one-on-one lunch with Macron at the Élysée Palace. An expanded summit followed, and the two leaders then addressed reporters together.
“We agreed to achieve a genuine leap forward in defense and security cooperation in order to jointly respond to the uncertainties of the international order,” Lee said in the joint press conference after the summit, adding that the two governments would move quickly toward signing a reciprocal military logistics support agreement. South Korea and France also signed an amended protocol to their existing pact on protecting military secrets, expanding the list of French officials with access to classified material and tightening rules on its handling.
Hormuz Strait security featured prominently in the talks.
