Seoul (AFP) - South Korea and Turkey agreed to strengthen their cooperation in the fields of nuclear energy and defense, during a summit that brought together their presidents on Tuesday in Seoul.
Published on: 03/11/2026 - 11:55
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a joint press conference that the documents signed by the two sides in the field of nuclear energy, as a continuation of a previous memorandum of understanding, “will further strengthen this cooperation.”
The memorandum of understanding signed in November 2025 laid the foundations for cooperation in a nuclear power plant project that Türkiye intends to build in Sinop, and South Korean companies are seeking to participate in it.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said that the two sides agreed that "cooperation in the Sinop nuclear power plant project in Türkiye is proceeding smoothly."
He added that the two sides signed another memorandum of understanding on Tuesday “on cooperation in financing nuclear energy projects, with the aim of supporting the participation of South Korean companies in them from the early stages.”
In the field of defence, he told me that the two countries agreed to “strengthen defense cooperation by expanding the scope of joint production and technological cooperation, and also to explore opportunities that allow the companies of the two countries to enter the markets of other countries together,” without going into details.
Erdogan pointed to Turkey's interest in South Korea's experience in the field of semiconductors and other technological fields, and singled out defense as an area in which "our strategic partnership has yielded tangible results."
"During my meeting with the president, we stressed the necessity of increasing the number of successful joint projects," Erdogan said.
He described the nuclear energy agreement concluded last year as “an important basis for our cooperation” in this field.
The volume of trade exchange between Türkiye and South Korea reached a record level of $10.7 billion last year. The two countries have a free trade agreement that entered into force in 2013.
© 2026 AFP
The content you want to browse is no longer in service or is currently unavailable.
