South Korea and Türkiye Discuss Cooperation Plans Including Preliminary Feasibility Study for Nuclear Power Market Entry

Bilateral Meeting Between Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy and Türkiye’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources
Agreement to Strengthen Cooperation in Trade, Investment, Nuclear Power, and Resources

South Korea and Türkiye have agreed to strengthen cooperation in areas such as trade and investment, nuclear power, and natural resources. Most recently, they launched a preliminary feasibility study for South Korea’s entry into Türkiye’s nuclear power market.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that on the 25th, Minister Kim Jeonggwan held a bilateral meeting with Alparslan Bayraktar, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Türkiye, at the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, where they discussed ways to expand industrial and trade ties between the two countries.

Kim Jeonggwan, Minister of Industry. Yoon Dongju, Reporter

This meeting was held as a follow-up measure to translate the outcomes of the South Korea–Türkiye summit in November last year into tangible results of bilateral cooperation.

At the meeting, Minister Kim highly valued the fact that trade between the two countries has continued to grow despite recent global uncertainties, reaching a record high of 10.7 billion dollars last year. He went on to express his hope that, through follow-up implementation in future strategic sectors such as nuclear power, bio, infrastructure, and defense, where expanded cooperation was agreed at the summit, the bilateral partnership would deepen further.

Minister Kim also highly appreciated that, based on the “Nuclear Power Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Korea Electric Power Corporation and the Nuclear Power Corporation of Türkiye” signed on the occasion of the summit in November 2025, companies from both countries have since engaged in active discussions. Recently, the two companies agreed on how to operate a working group to assess the business viability of a new nuclear power plant project in Türkiye and have begun a preliminary feasibility study, thereby actively advancing their cooperation.

Minister Kim stressed, “Over the past 50 years, Korean companies have accumulated extensive experience and technology through the construction and operation of nuclear power plants,” adding, “They are the optimal partners for cooperation with Türkiye, which is currently pursuing multiple new nuclear power plant projects.” He also proposed that the governments of both countries maintain close communication and provide necessary support so that nuclear power cooperation between the two countries’ companies, which is still at an early stage, can move into a substantive phase.

In addition, Minister Kim suggested that, in response to global trends such as protectionism and economic bloc formation, the two countries should strengthen resource cooperation and other forms of collaboration in key minerals, materials and components, and equipment procurement, in order to enhance supply chain stability between South Korea and Türkiye.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.