President Moon Jae-in, during his state visit to Hungary, held a summit with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of the Republic of Poland, who attended the 2nd V4-Korea Summit in Budapest today. The two leaders had extensive discussions on how to promote bilateral relations.

They noted that the two countries have built close cooperative ties since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1989 while sharing such universal values as democracy and a market economy and that mutually beneficial cooperation in a wide range of fields has been strengthening since 2013 when our relationship was upgraded to a strategic partnership. 

President Moon said, “About 260 Korean companies are operating in Poland – from manufacturing to high-tech industries – and trade between our two countries reached an all-time high last year. I’d like to see bilateral cooperation expand further on infrastructure, the defense industry and nuclear power plants – the areas where our two countries have recently been working more closely.” The President went on to say, “I hope that Poland’s Polish Deal will succeed and that our two countries will be able to pursue mutually beneficial cooperation by linking it to the Korean New Deal.”

Prime Minister Morawiecki said that Poland is Korea’s gateway to the EU and that Korean companies are using their profits from local investments to reinvest in Poland. The Prime Minister added that since Korea has no intention to dominate other countries or view them as rivals but rather sees them as cooperative partners, it will continue to be a genuine partner. 

The two leaders had an in-depth discussion on defense- and defense industry-related cooperation. In particular, they said that Korea’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Energy will visit Poland to continue talks on new nuclear power projects there. The two leaders also discussed Poland’s role in promoting peace on the Korean Peninsula.