South Korean President Moon Jae-in will meet his Turkmen counterpart, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, on Wednesday to discuss ways to improve the countries’ bilateral ties. The summit will follow a welcome ceremony for Moon, who arrived here Tuesday on a three-day state visit. It will be held at the presidential palace, Oguzkhan, according to Moon’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

Moon and Berdimuhamedow will first hold a one-on-one meeting, followed by an expanded summit. The leaders will discuss ways to boost the countries’ cooperation in various areas, including ICT, energy and infrastructure. “The visit to Turkmenistan marks the second of its kind by a South Korean head of state and is expected to be a chance to open the possibility of cooperation in various areas, including energy, transportation, logistics and infrastructure, as well as the health and medical and ICT sectors, while also promoting the advance of our companies to resource-rich Turkmenistan,” Cheong Wa Dae said earlier.

The South Korean president is currently on a three-nation tour that will later take him to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The countries, along with Turkmenistan, are at the center of Seoul’s New Northern Policy that seeks to boost the country’s economic and diplomatic ties with Eurasian nations, including Russia, as well as Central and Northern Asian countries. On Thursday, Moon will head to Kiyanly in the eastern port city of Turkmenbashi to visit a petrochemical plant built by an international consortium led by South Korea’s Hyundai Engineering Co. He will wrap up his visit here later that day to head for Uzbekistan.

(Yonhap)