South Korea and Belgium Sign Startup MOU as President Lee Concludes Brussels Summit
Lee Jae-myung's European tour yields a bilateral agreement on SME and startup cooperation, timed to mark 125 years of diplomatic ties.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung met with Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever in Brussels on Wednesday, with the two leaders holding talks focused on expanding trade and deepening cooperation between their countries' small and medium-sized enterprises.
The summit produced a formal memorandum of understanding between South Korea's Ministry of Startups and SMEs and Belgium's Ministry of the Middle Classes, the Self-Employed, and SMEs — the first such bilateral agreement between the two countries in that sector.
The agreement was deliberately timed to coincide with the 125th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Seoul and Brussels, lending symbolic weight to what officials described as a new chapter in economic ties.
KBS World, South Korea's public broadcaster, framed the meeting primarily as a diplomatic exchange, noting that the two leaders discussed ways to strengthen bilateral trade and share perspectives on economic cooperation broadly.
The Korea Times placed greater emphasis on the economic pressures driving the deal, characterising it as part of Seoul's effort to secure new economic footholds in Western Europe amid growing volatility in global trade — particularly for tech-oriented small businesses and startups seeking international markets.
South Korea's startup sector has emerged as a significant pillar of its export economy, and the government has increasingly sought bilateral frameworks to open foreign markets for smaller firms that lack the resources of the country's large conglomerates.
Belgium, home to the European Union's administrative centre, holds strategic value as a diplomatic and commercial gateway into the broader European single market — a factor that adds weight to any formal institutional agreement struck there.
The MOU's implementation details, including any specific funding commitments or exchange programmes for startups, had not been publicly disclosed as of Thursday. President Lee's European tour was continuing, with Italy among the subsequent stops on his itinerary.