South Korean President Lee Jae-myung held a state visit to Brazil on 27 July 2026, holding summit talks with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at the Alvorada Palace in Brasília. It was the first state visit by a South Korean leader to Brazil in eleven years and marked the second meeting between the two presidents this year, following Lula’s state visit to Seoul in February, when the two countries agreed to raise bilateral relations to the level of a Strategic Partnership and adopted the Action Plan 2026–2029 setting out a roadmap for consolidating high-level political dialogue and outlining priorities for the years ahead.
The two leaders examined ways to broaden cooperation in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, critical minerals, the energy transition, health, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, culture, education and sport, alongside efforts to expand bilateral trade through greater industrial integration and wider access for Brazilian agricultural goods in the South Korean market. Bilateral trade stood at approximately USD 10.8 billion in 2025, with South Korea ranking as Brazil’s fourth-largest trading partner in Asia and its nineteenth-largest foreign investor.
At the joint press conference following the summit, President Lee described Brazil as the world’s eleventh-largest economy and a central axis for global supply chains and food security, and declared 2026 the inaugural year for advancing the Korea–Brazil strategic partnership. Both leaders announced the creation of a bilateral working group tasked with identifying sensitive trade issues, with a view to declaring the resumption of Korea-Mercosur free trade negotiations at the 69th Mercosur Summit in December.
Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung confirmed after the summit that both governments had agreed to designate senior officials—Korea’s presidential chief of staff for policy, Kim Yong-beom, and Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin—to oversee implementation of the economic cooperation agenda. Five memoranda of understanding were signed at the palace covering industrial technology, critical minerals, agriculture and other strategic sectors.
On defence and space, the two governments cited South Korea’s acquisition of the Embraer-built C-390 Millennium military transport aircraft as a symbol of the deepening partnership, and agreed to expand space cooperation, including a planned rocket launch by the Korean firm Innospace from the Alcântara Launch Centre in Maranhão. Brazil also expressed support for Korean efforts towards denuclearisation and lasting peace on the Korean peninsula, which President Lee acknowledged with thanks for Brazil’s role in promoting denuclearisation in Latin America.
Following the Brasília leg of the visit, President Lee travelled to São Paulo on 28 July for a Korea-Brazil Business Roundtable. Addressing business leaders from both countries, he said: “Considering the sizes of the two countries’ economies, the potential for bilateral economic cooperation is very significant,” while noting that current trade volumes remained modest relative to that potential.
The visit forms part of a wider three-nation South American tour that will take President Lee to Chile and Argentina later in the week, as Seoul seeks to diversify trade partnerships amid shifting global trade conditions.
