President Lee Jae-myung and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shake hands after a welcoming ceremony at a state guesthouse in Rome on the 12th (local time). News1
President Lee Jae-myung, who is on a state visit to Italy, told Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in a summit Friday, “It’s a pity that we should have met at the World Cup finals.” After Meloni congratulated the Korean national team on its first-match victory at this year’s World Cup, Lee responded by consoling Italy, which failed to qualify for the finals.
In his opening remarks at the expanded talks with Meloni, Lee said, “I am glad to see you again,” adding, “It has been three days since I came to Italy, and it brings back many emotions.” This marks the fourth meeting between Lee and Meloni. They met three times previously — at the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Canada in June last year, the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September, and during Meloni’s state visit to Korea this past January.
“Italians and Koreans are emotionally similar and get along well,” Lee said. “We discussed last time how important a rules-based international order is, and I hope we will work together to develop cooperation in areas such as free trade and multilateralism.”
He added, “I think we need to build a new framework for cooperation, which is why developing our bilateral relations is all the more meaningful.” Lee also said, “We are complementary to each other, and I believe we can create synergy through our cooperation.” On the occasion of Lee’s state visit, the two countries’ relations were indeed upgraded to a “special strategic partnership.”
Lee said there is “really a great deal that Korea and Italy can do to help each other,” adding, “I hope we can build a Korea that can help Italy and an Italy that can help Korea.” He continued, “Recently we held detailed discussions on areas such as defense, satellites, space, and advanced industries, and through these I think we can do things that strengthen each other further.”
Meanwhile, the two countries signed the “Korea-Italy Development Cooperation MOU” to jointly pursue cooperation projects in Africa, as well as a total of four memorandums of understanding (MOUs) covering science, technology and ICT cooperation, the social and solidarity economy, and cooperation in the small and medium-sized enterprises and small business sectors. They also adopted the “2026-2030 Korea-Italy Strategic Action Plan” document to implement these systematically.