President Lee Jae-myung, having completed a tour of four countries in Africa·the Middle East on the occasion of attending the Group of 20 (G20) summit, arrives at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam on the 26th and shakes hands with Democratic Party of Korea leader Jeong Cheong-rae. Yonhap News

President Lee Jae-myung returned home on the 26th after completing a seven-night, ten-day tour of the Middle East·Africa.

The President entered the country that morning via Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, Minister of the Interior and Safety Yoon Ho-jung, Democratic Party of Korea leader Jeong Cheong-rae, Democratic Party of Korea floor leader Kim Byung-ki, Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik, and First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Yoon-joo welcomed the presidential couple. As the President and First Lady emerged from the presidential aircraft, applause broke out among the welcoming party. Descending the stairs, President Lee shook hands with each person and offered greetings of “Thank you for your hard work.”

On the 17th, the President departed from Seoul Air Base and, after stops in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Cairo, Egypt, completed an on-site itinerary across four countries, including Johannesburg, South Africa, where the Group of 20 (G20) summit was held, and Ankara, Turkiye. This was his first visit to the Middle East·Africa region since taking office.

During the tour, the President visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt, and Turkiye for summit talks and pledged cooperation in a wide range of fields including the defense industry, nuclear power, culture, and artificial intelligence (AI). In a speech at Cairo University in Egypt, he announced the Korean government’s Middle East initiative, the ‘SHINE initiative’, and he also attended the Group of 20 (G20) summit held in South Africa.

Having effectively wrapped up this year’s multilateral diplomacy, the President is expected, for the time being, to focus on domestic issues such as regulatory innovation, price stability, and prosecution·judicial reform. He will monitor to ensure that follow-up measures to tariff negotiations with the United States, including enacting a special law on investment in the United States, proceed without a hitch, and he is also expected to begin work in December on relocating the Yongsan presidential office to Cheong Wa Dae.

The presidential office and government ministries are also expected to accelerate follow-up work to turn what was agreed at the summits into concrete outcomes. They will need to flesh out the joint development and local production model in defense discussed with the UAE and push working-level talks so that it can lead to actual contracts. They are also expected to work closely with domestic companies and support bid campaigns from the sidelines to connect large overseas projects mentioned at the summitssuch as the next nuclear power plant in Turkiye and the expansion of Cairo Airport in Egyptto South Korea’s national interest.