Lee to meet Medvedev in St. Petersburg, attend Cannes G20

President Lee Myung-bak will fly to St. Petersburg next week for a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and an annual Korea-Russia dialogue before heading to Cannes to attend the G20 Summit.

Lee is scheduled to arrive at St. Petersburg next Tuesday and hold summit talks with Medvedev on Wednesday during which the two leaders are expected to deal with the envisioned project to pipe Siberian gas to South Korea via North Korea.

Talks are under way between the South’s Korea Gas Corp. and Russia’s Gazprom, as well as between Gazprom and its North Korean counterpart on the transnational pipeline, but government-level meetings are yet to be realized.

“The two leaders plan to discuss ways to materialize the strategic cooperative partnership and to strengthen cooperation for modernization of the Russian economy,” Cheong Wa Dae said in a press release.

Earlier this month, Lee appointed Wi Sung-lac, the South’s top nuclear negotiator, as the new ambassador to Russia, with expectations of greater cooperation in energy and resource development with the resource-rich country.

Lee and Medvedev will also exchange views on North Korea’s nuclear program as well as how to collaborate for next year’s Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation in Vladivostok, Cheong Wa Dae said.

The two will attend the closing ceremony of the second KRD forum, which was initiated last year in Seoul by the industries, universities and nongovernmental organizations of the two countries. It will be Lee’s third visit to Russia since taking office in 2008.

At the G20 Summit in the French resort city Nov. 3-4, Lee will join talks on how to respond to the eurozone crisis, cooperate on macroeconomic policies for global economic recovery, reform the international currency system, stabilize the price volatility of raw materials, financial safety nets and global governance, Cheong Wa Dae said.

Before attending the G20 Summit, Lee will deliver a keynote speech to the chief executives of major companies and representatives of governments and international organizations at a B20 Business Summit dinner on Wednesday.

In addition to the G20 countries, five non-member nations ― Spain, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore ― will be invited to the G20 Summit in Cannes.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)