President Yoon Suk Yeol (right) and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Sept. 18 exchange a handshake at their bilateral summit in New York on the sidelines of the 78th United Nations General Assembly.

By Kim Seon Ah
Photos = Kang Min Seok, Office of the President

President Yoon Suk Yeol, on a visit to New York to attend the 78th United Nations General Assembly, on Sept. 18 began summit diplomacy by holding bilateral talks with nine heads of state and urged support for Busan's bid to host the 2030 World Expo.

The Office of the President in Seoul said he arrived in the Big Apple in the morning and held a summit with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe in the afternoon to begin his official itinerary.

Both leaders exchanged opinions of developing bilateral relations, with President Yoon asking for Sri Lankan support for Busan's World Expo bid.

"We hope to cooperate under the goal of a long-term partnership in sectors such as developmental cooperation, labor, response to climate change, and trade and investment," President Yoon said. "Like the Korea-Sri Lanka Advanced Vocational Training Center, we wish to keep developing cooperative projects that contribute to creating jobs for youth."

"Sri Lankans who received training in Korea are working in their home country as highly skilled and high-quality workers," President Wickremesinghe said. "We wish to promote a trade and investment cooperation agreement with Korea so that bilateral trade and exchange can grow more active."

President Yoon Suk Yeol (right) and Czech President Petr Pavel on Sept. 18 pose for photos at their summit in New York on the sidelines of the 78th U.N. General Assembly.

In his summit with Czech President Petr Pavel, President Yoon said, "Since forging diplomatic relations in 1990, Korea and the Czech Republic have closely worked together in sharing universal values such as freedom, human rights and rule of law."

President Yoon also asked his Czech counterpart to pay more attention to and support the participation of Korean companies with world-class technology and competitiveness in the Eastern European country's new nuclear power plant in Dukovany.

"Both countries are core states in Northeast Asia and Central Europe and thus have great potential for cooperation," President Pavel said. "We actively support Korea's activities as a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council for 2024-25 and praise President Yoon's leadership that improved Korea-Japan relations, as both are key Asian partners of the Czech Republic."

Next was a summit with Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdimuhamedow, the first time for President Yoon since taking office, to discuss development of bilateral ties.

President Yoon said, "I highly evaluate active bilateral collaboration in construction centered on energy and plant projects and hope to bolster mutually beneficial cooperation between both sides."

President Berdimuhamedow asked for highly experienced and tech-savvy Korean companies to actively take part in Turkmenistan's project to build the smart city of Arkadaq.

President Yoon also held talks with the leaders of San Marino, Burundi, Denmark, Montenegro, Saint Lucia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina and requested their support for Busan's World Expo bid.

President Yoon's New York trip is considered an "all-out war" for both Busan's World Expo bid and the economy, Senior Secretary to the President for Public Relations Kim Eun-hye said in a news release. During his six-day trip until Sept. 22, the president plans bilateral summits with at least 38 leaders, she added.

sofiakim218@korea.kr