South Korean President Lee Jae-myung arrived in New Delhi on April 19, 2026, for a three-day official state visit. Lee met Indian foreign minister Dr. S. Jaishankar on the first day of his visit. He was due to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi later on April 20.

Accompanying Lee is a large Korean industry delegation with representatives from many major companies operating in many strategically important sectors, All India Radio reported.

Lee's arrival in India marks the first such visit to the country by a South Korean president in eight years. Officially the visit is a summit, meant to follow an agenda with the projected outcome being headlined by the deepening of a set of priorities in bilateral relations first established in 2015 by a wide ranging Special Strategic Partnership project between the two countries.

Purportedly, bilateral merchandise trade between India and South Korea surpassed $25.1bn in 2024, following the implementation of a bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2010.

However, there is an even larger target in sight, as both Seoul and New Delhi envision their trade turnover to cross $50bn by the year 2030.

It is believed this goal can only be achieved with coproduction and meaningful progress in high-value manufacturing and technology licensing especially in sectors with strategic applications such as semiconductors, Artificial Intelligence(AI), shipbuilding, and defence.

The meeting between President Lee and Prime Minister Modi is likely to be held at Hyderabad House which serves as a default location for similar events, according to a statement by India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

While critical and emerging technologies are the most important part of the talks, the leaders and the delegations are also likely to address legacy issues such as people-to-people links and cultural exchanges.

South Korea has a huge advantage in soft power and cultural diplomacy, as it can count on K-Pop and Korean consumer products especially in the skincare and cosmetics segment, which are popular among India’s youth, similar to their South East Asian or Western counterparts.

India has included shipbuilding amongst the strategically important sectors it is focusing on both in the military and civilian space. India has sanctioned setting up several greenfield shipyards by some of its major defence establishments including state owned Mazgaon Dock Limited (NSE:MAZDOCK) which is set to build and commission two such shipbuilding facilities on the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu’s coastline.

While Mazgaon has the biggest order book and capex in the Indian shipbuilding industry it is a proverbial small fish compared to global giants. South Korean shipyards alone account for almost 40% of the global market for shipbuilding, specialising in the largest hulls humans have put to sea via mass production.

Among these South Korean giants, HD Hyundai (KRX:267250) is in advanced negotiations with Indian state owned Cochin Shipyard Limited (NSE:COCHINSHIP), that built India’s flagship aircraft carrier INS VIkrant, to establish a joint venture for a ship-block fabrication facility in Kochi.

South Korean chip manufacturing giants such as Samsung Electronics (KRX:005930) and SK Hynix (KRX:000660) which are likely to be part of the delegation, as their presence would be the fulcrum upon which South Korea can pivot its efforts in aiding the hightech manufacturing, chip fabrication, component value chain and ecosystem development India has taken up as a national priority.