Sabah - Türkiye and South Korea are seeking ways to improve bilateral trade ties and are willing to expand cooperation on a range of fields including energy and defense industries. Türkiye’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently visited South Korea to attend a nuclear security summit and the two nations signed a free trade agreement framework to be finalized this June.
Accompanying Prime Minister Erdogan, the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Taner Yildiz, said that although Turkish and South Korean officials had not reached an agreement on the building of a second nuclear plant in Türkiye, the issue was still being negotiated. After meeting with officials from South Korea’s leading energy firms, Yildiz stated that South Koreans were also interested in building a 5,000-6,000 MW coal power plant in Türkiye.
Türkiye and South Korea came close to signing an accord in 2010 to build Türkiye’s second nuclear power plant on the Black Sea coast. However, the deal did not go through due to a disagreement regarding treasury guarantees being demanded by the South Korean side.
The two countries also cooperate on defense industries. South Korea is listed among the possible foreign buyers of the joint Turkish-Italian attack helicopter project, T-129 Atak.