President Lee Jae Myung (right) and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sept. 22 shake hands ahead of their talks at Ban Ki-moon Hall at the Korean Mission to the UN in New York. (Yonhap News)

By Uyen Nguyen

President Lee Jae Myung and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have agreed to expand cooperation on energy supply chains, critical minerals and clean energy.

Senior Secretary to the President for Public Relations and Communications Seong Ghihong said that the two leaders held a summit in New York on Sept. 22 on the sidelines of High-Level Week at the annual United Nations General Assembly.

It was their third meeting following bilateral talks on the sidelines of last year's G7 and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summits.

The two leaders reaffirmed that Seoul and Canberra are important partners for supplying key energy resources, including liquefied natural gas and petroleum products, as they respond to the energy crisis stemming from the conflict in the Middle East.

They also agreed to cooperate closely on building stable and resilient regional supply chains.

Prime Minister Albanese said Korea is a trusted partner for Australia in critical minerals and clean energy, adding that there is significant potential to further develop bilateral cooperation by combining Korea's manufacturing capabilities with Australia's abundant resources.

President Lee agreed, asking about trends in energy prices and Australia's policies on using renewable energy to power AI data centers and suggesting that they explore new areas of cooperation.

The two leaders agreed to continue expanding cooperation across various fields amid growing global uncertainty.

They also agreed to strengthen communication with each other, which will include meeting at this year's APEC and G20 summits and arranging for President Lee to visit Australia in the first half of next year.

uyen81@korea.kr