Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is preparing for one of the busiest diplomatic trips of the month. Immediately after the two-day BRICS summit in India, the head of state will depart on a state visit to Seoul, where talks with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung will take place from September 14 to 16. The main round of the meeting between the two leaders is scheduled for the afternoon of September 15, KBS reports. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
For the first time in history, the "Central Asia — South Korea" cooperation format is being raised from the ministerial level to a meeting of the leaders of all five countries in the region. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev was the first to land in Seoul, with delegations from Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan expected to arrive next.
The culmination of the visit will be a multilateral summit on September 16. Official Seoul is highly interested in diversifying resource supplies, openly targeting critical minerals, uranium and rare metals from Central Asia.
In turn, Kazakhstan and its regional neighbors expect to exchange raw material potential for modern exploration technologies, the transfer of technological solutions and access to the South Korean market. The outcome of the meeting is expected to be the "Seoul Declaration" — a large-scale strategy for long-term partnership in energy, AI and digitalization.
Immediately after the official political part concludes, the presidents will move to a business summit, which will bring together around 500 representatives of major Korean corporations and financial institutions.
For Kazakhstan, this visit will serve as a platform for attracting direct investment in industry and logistics. Experts note that a real competition between the countries of the region for Korean capital and factory technologies will unfold in Seoul.