November 18, 2025
SEOUL – President Lee Jae Myung on Monday embarked on a 10-day trip to the Middle East and Africa, beginning with a state visit to the United Arab Emirates, where collaboration in AI, defense capabilities and cultural exchange will take center stage.
Upon arriving in Abu Dhabi on Monday, Lee was scheduled to visit the Wahat Al Karama war memorial and the tomb of the UAE’s first president, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, near the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque to pay his respects.
According to the presidential office, Lee will be received by UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. The two leaders are scheduled to hold talks, followed by a document-signing ceremony and a state luncheon.
On Wednesday, Lee is scheduled to attend a roundtable with business leaders from both South Korea and the UAE. South Korean executives attending the event include Samsung Electronics Executive Chair Lee Jae-yong and Vice Chair Kim Dong-kwan of Hanwha, a defense-to-energy conglomerate.
Also on Wednesday, Lee will speak with South Korean troops deployed with the Special Warfare Unit in the UAE, also known as the Akh Unit, before departing for Cairo, Egypt.
Under a special strategic partnership established in 2018, diplomatic ties between South Korea and the UAE, now in their 45th year, have deepened in recent years. The UAE remains the only Middle Eastern nation with which South Korea has formed such a partnership.
Prior to Lee’s trip to Abu Dhabi, he hosted UAE Crown Prince Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Oct. 31, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conferences held in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. According to the presidential office, Lee and the crown prince discussed expanding collaboration beyond defense and energy into advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, along with enhancing cultural exchanges. During the meeting, Lee was invited to visit the UAE in the near future.
On Sunday, Lee’s chief of staff Kang Hoon-sik said in a Facebook post that he had delivered a letter from Lee to the UAE president, expressing hope that the visit would “lead to tangible outcomes in key areas such as AI, defense technology, energy and logistics,” and that cooperation could “expand to the cultural sector and halal food.”
Kang, who traveled to the UAE on Thursday, also met with Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, chair of the UAE’s Executive Affairs Authority, and Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the UAE’s minister of industry and advanced technology.
Lee is the second South Korean leader to make a state visit to the UAE, following his predecessor, former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who visited in January 2023. That visit secured a $30 billion investment commitment from the UAE in the South Korean energy and defense sectors. UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed later visited Seoul for a state visit hosted by Yoon in May 2024.
The UAE has also been one of the key purchasers of South Korean defense equipment, including the Cheongung-II air defense system.
Separately, Lee’s scheduled attendance at the G20 Summit in Johannesburg will mark his final multilateral summit appearance of the year, according to the presidential office.
Since his inauguration in June, Lee has participated in the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, in June; the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September; the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in October; and the APEC meetings in South Korea, which concluded in early November.
Before returning to South Korea on Nov. 26, Lee plans to visit the UAE, Egypt, South Africa and Turkey.