SEOUL — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is scheduled to travel to the United States next week to participate in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Washington and to visit the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii, according to his office.
According to Yonhap News Agency, President Yoon will be in Washington from Wednesday to Thursday to engage with NATO leaders on various topics, including the war in Ukraine and collaborations between the transatlantic security alliance and the Indo-Pacific region. Before the summit, Yoon will make a stop in Hawaii on Monday and Tuesday to receive a security briefing from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. Additionally, Yoon is expected to hold several bilateral meetings during the NATO summit to discuss expanding security cooperation, particularly in light of increasing military relations between Russia and North Korea.
South Korea has been invited to participate in the NATO summit for the third consecutive year as a non-NATO partner from the Indo-Pacific region, a group that also includes Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. This follows Yoon’s attendance at previous summits in Spain in 2022 and Lithuania in 2023.