President Lee plans state visits to Singapore, the Philippines
Published: 27 Feb. 2026, 10:43
![President Lee Jae Myung, right, and first lady Kim Hea Kyung wave to well-wishers aboard Air Force One at Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan, on Jan. 14 before returning home after concluding his visit to Japan for a bilateral summit. [YONHAP]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2026/02/27/1220e294-acee-4a65-8a5d-9e231cd34dd1.jpg)
President Lee Jae Myung, right, and first lady Kim Hea Kyung wave to well-wishers aboard Air Force One at Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan, on Jan. 14 before returning home after concluding his visit to Japan for a bilateral summit. [YONHAP]
President Lee Jae Myung will pay state visits to Singapore and the Philippines from Sunday to Wednesday, the Blue House said in a written briefing on Thursday.
Lee will visit Singapore from Sunday to Tuesday, where he will hold a summit and a luncheon meeting with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. He is also scheduled to meet with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and attend a state banquet.
The president will also take part in the AI Connect Summit, jointly hosted by the two countries to promote economic exchanges in the field of AI, and is expected to meet with industry officials.
“Singapore is a hub for transportation, logistics and finance that leads the regional free trade order,” Blue House spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said. “This visit will serve as an opportunity to solidify existing cooperation in trade, investment and infrastructure, while expanding collaboration into promising future sectors such as AI and nuclear power.”
Lee will travel to Manila on Tuesday for a summit and state banquet with Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. and attend a business forum and other events.
“The Philippines was the first Southeast Asian country to establish diplomatic ties with Korea and is a longstanding ally that dispatched the first and largest Asian contingent to the Korean War,” Kang said. “Notably, March 3, when the summit will be held, marks the 77th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.”
Kang added that the visit will further deepen collaboration in areas such as defense, infrastructure, trade and future growth sectors, including nuclear power, shipbuilding, critical minerals and AI.
“The bilateral visits to the Philippines, this year’s Asean chair, and Singapore, next year’s chair, will also serve as an important opportunity to concretize and actively implement the ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership vision’ announced at last year’s Korea-Asean summit,” Kang said.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM EUN-BIN [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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