By Diplomacy Journal Lee Jon-young

President Lee Jae-myung, who arrived in Canada to attend the G7 summit, held consecutive meetings with the South African president and Australian prime minister.

President Lee Jae-myung held a summit meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at around 2:40 p.m. of June 16 (local time). South Africa was invited to the G7 summit as an observer country, along with South Korea, India, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and Ukraine.

President Lee then held a summit meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a hotel in Calgary, Canada, at around 3:30 p.m.

Earlier, on June 12, President Lee had his first phone call with Prime Minister Albanese since taking office, lasting about 15 minutes, during which they agreed to continue strengthening cooperation in various fields, including defense and military industries, clean energy, and supply chain-related cooperation involving critical minerals.

President Lee will attend a welcome reception hosted by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and a welcome dinner hosted by Governor General Mary Simon with his wife, Kim Hye-kyung, on the evening of the same day.

On June 17, he will attend an expanded session with G7 member countries and invited countries. At this meeting, President Lee is scheduled to make two speeches on the topics of energy supply chain diversification and artificial intelligence (AI) energy linkage.