Overview
- Lee Jae Myung and Emmanuel Macron announced the upgrade on Friday in Seoul and said they would coordinate on safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz as the war in the Middle East strains oil flows.
- The presidents pledged deeper defense ties with regular drills, more information sharing, and closer work on military production, and Seoul updated its pact to better protect shared classified data.
- State utility KHNP signed fuel-supply MOUs with France’s Orano and Framatome and reached a separate deal with EDF to develop an offshore wind project in Yeonggwang.
- The governments agreed to cooperate on AI, semiconductors, and quantum technologies and to build more reliable critical mineral supply chains, while setting a $20 billion trade goal for 2030.
- Lee accepted an invitation to the G7 summit in June and both sides emphasized cultural and people-to-people exchanges during the first French state visit to Korea since 2015, which marked 140 years of ties.