President Lee Jae Myung Targets AI Diplomacy in Five-Nation Tour

From July 24 to August 3, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung will embark on a diplomatic circuit across five countries, shifting focus from traditional statecraft to the high-stakes world of artificial intelligence. The tour balances South American trade relations with critical summits in the United States.

Editorial·July 22, 2026·reads: 2,470

President Lee Jae Myung Targets AI Diplomacy in Five-Nation Tour

The president’s itinerary begins with a series of bilateral summits in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina, aimed at reinforcing South Korea's diplomatic footprint in South America. Once these engagements conclude, the focus pivots sharply to San Francisco for a summit centered on the future of artificial intelligence.

This leg of the trip brings together a powerful cohort of corporate leadership. President Lee is scheduled to hold private discussions with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei. Accompanying the delegation are two of South Korea’s most influential business titans, Samsung’s Jay Y. Lee and SK Group’s Chey Tae-won, signaling a concerted effort to align the nation’s industrial giants with the rapidly evolving global AI landscape.