South Korea to host Macron state visit; Prabowo to push strategic partnership talks

The South Korean presidential office said in a written briefing on the 13th that French President Emmanuel Macron will make a state visit to South Korea for a two-day, one-night schedule next month. He is to arrive after a three-day official trip to Japan, and the Korea-France summit is scheduled for March 3.

In parallel, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is set to visit Seoul as a state guest on the 31st of this month. Next month, Yoon Suk Yeol will hold a separate summit with Prabowo on the 1st to discuss elevating bilateral ties to a Special Strategic Partnership and expanding collaboration across multiple areas.

The Blue House said the upcoming Korea-France summit will focus on elevating bilateral ties to a strategic level and broadening cooperation in fields such as trade and investment, advanced technologies (including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, space and nuclear power), science and technology, education and culture, and people-to-people exchanges. A joint Korea-France agenda is expected to cover both nations’ broader collaboration.

This year marks the 140th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and France, and Macron’s visit would be the first by a French president to Korea in 11 years. It is also described by Seoul as Macron’s first visit to Korea since taking office. The two countries are expected to hold the summit on March 3 as part of this diplomatic push.

France is chair of this year’s Group of Seven (G7) leading economies, with invitation authority for the June summit in Evian-les-Bains. Seoul’s officials say the Korea-France talks could touch on whether Korea should receive an invitation to the G7, given Washington’s and Ottawa’s recent outreach to Seoul and Korea’s growing role in global tech, economy, and security discussions. President Yoon previously attended a G7 gathering in Canada last year.

Prabowo Subianto’s visit to Korea comes about five months after his previous trip to the country, which followed last October’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju. The planned discussions with Yoon on the 1st will seek to deepen trade and investment ties, advance defense and defense-industry cooperation, and expand collaboration in AI, infrastructure, shipbuilding, nuclear power, energy transition, and Korea’s cultural industries.

For U.S. readers, the visits signal an intensifying alignment between Seoul and major Western and regional partners on key strategic and economic fronts. The talks could influence advanced-technology cooperation, defense markets, and energy transitions that affect global supply chains and technology standards. They also reflect Korea’s ongoing effort to diversify its diplomacy beyond its alliance with the United States, while reinforcing its role in broader Western-led security and economic frameworks.