President Dmitry A. Medvedev of the Russian Federation is scheduled to make a state visit to Korea November 10-12 on the occasion of his attendance at the G20 Seoul Summit.

It is his first visit to Korea since his inauguration in May 2008 and is in return for the President’s visit to Russia in September of that year. The two Presidents will have held five summits since the first in July 2008 at the expanded G8 Summit in Toyako. They have met on three occasions since then, including the President’s visit to Russia in 2008, the expanded G8 Summit in L''Aquila in July 2009 and the 2nd Global Policy Forum in Yaroslavl in September 2010.

On the first day of the visit, the President and President Medvedev are scheduled to hold a summit and attend a state dinner. The two Presidents will engage in discussions on how to further flesh out the Korea-Russia relationship, which was upgraded to a strategic cooperative partnership when the President visited Russia in 2008. Among other things, the two leaders plan to exchange ideas on the promotion of substantive collaboration in the areas of mutual interest, including energy, resources, the development of far eastern Siberia and the modernization of the Russian economy. On top of this, they will have in-depth discussions on the developments of the situation in the international arena, including on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia, as well as on how to work together on the global scene, including at the G20 summits.  

Next week''s summit, which comes just two months after the two leaders met at the Global Policy Forum in Yaroslavl, Russia, will serve as a milestone in the development of the bilateral relations into a future-oriented partnership in this 20th anniversary year of Seoul-Moscow diplomatic ties.