By Lee Kap-soo

President Yoon Suk-yeol, who is in New York for the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly, held a summit with His Majesty King Mswati III of Eswatini on the afternoon of September 20, the first since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1968.

During the meeting, President Yoon sought Eswatini's support for the 2030 Busan World Expo and exchanged views on the development of bilateral relations.

President Yoon praised the unprecedented level of high-level exchanges between the two countries in recent years, and suggested that there is a lot of potential for agricultural cooperation between Korea, which has developed agricultural technology to ensure food self-sufficiency, and Eswatini, which has an agriculture-based economy, to pursue concrete cooperation such as invited training. 

He also suggested expanding practical cooperation in areas such as education, science and technology, health, and customs administration.

King Mswati expressed his appreciation that the Republic of Korea has been promoting support projects such as capacity building in various fields for the economic and social development of Eswatini, and hoped to strengthen the bilateral development cooperation partnership, including in the field of education and training.

Meanwhile, President Yoon requested King Mswati's interest in and participation in the first-ever Korea-Africa Summit to be held next year, and King Mswati welcomed the Korean government's efforts to strengthen cooperation with Africa and offered to work together for the success of the summit.

The two leaders used the meeting as an opportunity to further enhance bilateral exchanges and continue to identify cooperative projects that will benefit both economies.