President Lee Jae-myung, on an official visit to Chile, held a summit meeting with Chilean President José Antonio Kast on the 30th (local time) and signed five memorandums of understanding (MOUs), including an MOU on a “Mineral Resources Partnership.” The visit is expected to strengthen cooperation on securing minerals with Chile, the world’s No.1 country in copper and lithium. President Lee stressed the need to modernize the Korea-Chile Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which entered into force in 2004 and marks its 22nd year, saying, “The Korea-Chile FTA must evolve to reflect the new reality.” A visit by a Korean president to Chile is taking place for the first time in 11 years.

President Lee and President Kast held a summit at the presidential palace in Santiago, the Chilean capital, and agreed to actively pursue mutually beneficial, future-oriented cooperation in strategic areas such as core mineral supply chains, infrastructure, and defense industry. The MOU on a Mineral Resources Partnership signed that day includes upgrading the “Joint Committee on Mineral Resources Partnership” to the ministerial level and cooperating across the entire life cycle of major minerals, including copper and lithium. Under this arrangement, Chile will provide critical minerals, while Korea, which has an advanced industrial base, will link them to high value-added industries, thereby building a supply chain partnership. President Lee emphasized that Chile, the world’s No.1 copper producer and No.1 lithium reserve holder, and Korea, a leading country in advanced industries such as semiconductors and batteries, are ideal partners.

The government expects that upgrading and institutionalizing the Korea-Chile consultative body at the ministerial level will also establish a framework to support Korean companies’ entry into the local market. In addition, an investment cooperation MOU was signed to promote two-way investment between Korea and Chile and expand cooperation in identifying investment opportunities, as well as a polar research cooperation MOU to support activities at the King Sejong Station in Antarctica. An MOU on public security cooperation and an MOU on maritime safety and security cooperation were also concluded.

The summit also addressed the issue of modernizing the Korea-Chile FTA. The two countries agreed to restart the Korea-Chile FTA Free Trade Commission after 10 years in order to further expand trade and investment cooperation, review pending trade and investment issues, and discuss mutually beneficial improvements to the Korea-Chile FTA. In an interview the previous day with Spanish-language news agency EFE, President Lee cited FTA modernization as the top priority of his tour, saying, “Today’s economy is being reorganized around digital trade, artificial intelligence (AI), clean technologies, resilient supply chains, and the transition to carbon neutrality.” The Korea-Chile FTA was Korea’s first FTA. Although negotiations to revise the agreement have been underway since 2018, discussions have stalled since 2024, as Korea has been calling for further liberalization of Chile’s industrial goods market, while Chile has been demanding greater opening of Korea’s agricultural, livestock, and fishery markets.

In the afternoon, after completing a Korea-Chile business roundtable, President Lee will travel to Argentina, the final stop on his South American tour. At the summit meeting with Argentine President Javier Milei, the issue of resuming trade negotiations with the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) is expected to be discussed.

At a meeting with Korean residents the previous day, President Lee said, “On the map, Chile appears to be one of the farthest countries from the Republic of Korea, but there is always a deep friendship that keeps us close at heart.” Chile was the first South American country to recognize the government of the Republic of Korea, in 1949.

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