By Kayla Lee

President Yoon Suk-yeol, who is visiting New York to attend the 78th high-level session of the United Nations General Assembly, held his first summit with Colombian President Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego on the afternoon of September 20.

During the meeting, President Yoon requested Colombia's support for the 2030 Busan World Expo and exchanged views on the development of bilateral relations.

President Yoon expressed his pleasure to hold the first bilateral summit with Colombia, the only country in Latin America that participated in the Korean War, and thanked the country for its support in defending Korea's freedom and democracy. 

President Yoon expressed his hope for further expansion of bilateral trade and investment based on the Korea-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which entered into force in 2016, and in this regard requested Colombia's interest and cooperation in supporting Korea's application for associate membership in the Pacific Alliance (PA), a grouping of four emerging economic powers in Latin America.

President Petro thanked the Republic of Korea, a longtime friend of Colombia, for its contribution to Colombia's infrastructure development through its active ODA, and expressed his desire to expand bilateral economic and trade cooperation and deepen future-oriented cooperation with the Republic of Korea, which has policy experience and technological excellence in areas of economic emphasis for Colombia, such as land management and rural development, and clean energy transition.

The two leaders used the meeting as an opportunity to further enhance bilateral exchanges and continue to identify cooperative projects that will benefit both economies.