President Lee Jae Myung Arrives in France for Summit with Macron
Key Takeaways
- •President Lee Jae Myung began a four-day visit to France on Sept. 6, arriving in Nice before continuing to Paris for a state visit and summit with President Emmanuel Macron.
- •Lee and Macron will co-chair the Lumiere Summit on the future of cinema in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, reflecting longstanding cultural ties between the two countries.
- •In Paris, Lee will hold a luncheon and summit talks with Macron and attend a dinner banquet hosted by the French president and his wife at the Elysee Palace.
- •Lee will meet French National Assembly Speaker Yael Braun-Pivet and OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann before returning to Korea.
- •The visit marks the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations, which Korea and France formally established in 1886.
President Lee Jae Myung and First Lady Kim Hea Kyung were welcomed to France in a ceremony after arriving aboard the presidential plane at Nice Côte d'Azur Airport on Sept. 6. (Yonhap)
NICE, France — President Lee Jae Myung arrived in Nice on Sunday, Sept. 6, beginning a four-day visit to France that will later take him to Paris for a bilateral summit with French President Emmanuel Macron.
On Monday, Lee is scheduled to attend the Lumiere Summit on the future of cinema in nearby Saint-Paul-de-Vence, where he and Macron will co-chair the event. The choice of venue underscores the cultural dimension of the anniversary year: France, the birthplace of the cinema of the Lumiere brothers, and Korea, home of the Busan International Film Festival and the director Bong Joon-ho, whose film "Parasite" won the top Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019, have built longstanding ties in film and the arts.
On Tuesday, the Korean president will travel to Paris, where he will begin a two-day state visit. Shortly after arriving in the capital, Lee will hold a one-on-one luncheon with Macron, followed by summit talks and a dinner banquet hosted by the French president and his wife, Brigitte Macron, at the Elysee Palace.
On Wednesday, Lee will meet Yael Braun-Pivet, speaker of the lower house of the French parliament, and Mathias Cormann, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), before returning to Korea. The OECD meeting carries significance for Korea as a member of the Paris-based organization, which it joined in 1996 as the second Asian nation after Japan to gain entry.
Lee's trip comes at the invitation of Macron, following the French leader's visit to Korea in April. The exchange of visits between the two leaders takes place as the two countries mark the 140th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. Korea and France formally established diplomatic ties in 1886, making France one of the earliest Western nations to do so with Korea.
