South Korean President Moon Jae-in is flying out to India, kicking off his six-day tour of South and Southeast Asia.
The focus of his visit is more on strengthening economic cooperation, unlike his previous state visits, which mainly underscored his vision and policy for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Hwang Hojun reports.
President Moon Jae-in will be in India from the 8th through the 11th... on a state visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He and the Prime Minister will hold a bilateral summit... to evaluate the 45-year-old relationship between South Korea and India, which is now the world's fastest growing major economy.
Their meeting will also serve to strengthen the two countries' special strategic partnership... and it will cover ways to expand their future oriented relationship.
At the start of his visit, President Moon will also meet with the Indian head of state, President Ram Nath Kovind.
The schedule also includes a South Korea-India Business Forum, a roundtable for CEOs, and the signing of several MOUs covering a wide range of industries.
In the latter half of President Moon's six-day tour of South and Southeast Asia, he will head to Korea's second-biggest trading partner in ASEAN -- Singapore.
There he'll meet with both the Singaporean President, Halimah Yacob... and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
He'll be in Singapore for two days,... during which he'll hold a bilateral summit with the Prime Minister, sign MOUs ranging from biotech to fintech... and then give a lecture at Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
That lecture will explain South Korea's vision and policy for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula as well as its New Southern Policy, which seeks to upgrade the country's cooperation with ASEAN.
The Presidential Office of Cheong Wa Dae emphasized that both India and Singapore are important footholds in the Moon administration's New Southern Policy, which is to expand Seoul's diplomatic horizon with ASEAN nations.
President Moon will return to Seoul on Friday.
Hwang Hojun Arirang News.
