For eight days, April 16-23, President Moon Jae-in is scheduled to make state visits to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan – three Central Asian partners crucial for implementing Korea’s New Northern Policy. 

On the first leg, President Moon will visit Turkmenistan April 16-18 and hold a summit with President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. The two heads of state are expected to discuss measures to promote substantive cooperation for mutually beneficial prosperity. 

The President will next visit Uzbekistan April 18-21 and sit down with President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to raise the two countries’ strategic partnership to a higher level and discuss ways to expand forward-looking cooperation based on the upgraded ties. 

President Moon will also visit Kazakhstan April 21-23 and meet with its recently sworn-in leader, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, as part of efforts to build trust with the new Kazakh administration and engage in discussions on how to enhance mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.

This trip by President Moon is expected to serve as an opportunity to establish a foundation for future cooperation with the three Central Asian nations by further strengthening traditional, friendly and cooperative relations and promoting understanding of Korea’s New Northern Policy in the region. In addition, these visits are likely to contribute to developing long-term sustainable relations by reinforcing historical and cultural bonds with the countries, which have sizeable populations of ethnic Koreans – the descendants of the Korean enclaves forcibly relocated from the Russian Far East to Central Asia by the Soviet Union in the 1930s.