Lee's Asia Sweep: 20 MOUs With India, Nuclear Deal With Vietnam

In one week, South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung built two strategic axes for Seoul's Asia policy. In Delhi, 20 memorandums of understanding spanning steel, shipbuilding, energy and critical minerals. In Hanoi the next day, a dozen agreements covering nuclear power plants, semiconductors, AI data centers and smart cities.

The pattern is clear. Korea is buying optionality away from China, and India and Vietnam are the two anchors.

The Delhi leg

Lee opened the week at a bilateral summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then moved to a Korea-India business forum attended by Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor Group, LG, POSCO, and HD Hyundai. The 20 MOUs cover steel JVs, EV development, wind power, shipbuilding cooperation, and technology transfer. A separate session signed export deals worth $48 million on the spot.

The bigger goal Lee laid out in Delhi: more than double bilateral trade between the two countries from current levels. India is the world's fourth-largest economy. Korea-India trade today is roughly $30 billion. Lee wants $70 billion or more.

The two governments also issued a joint statement on stabilizing energy and resource supply chains while the Iran conflict continues. Industry minister Kim Jung-kwan and his Indian counterpart Piyush Goyal agreed to a regular ministerial channel, the first since 2022.

The Hanoi leg

In Vietnam, Lee met with party leader To Lam at the presidential palace. The headline is the entry into Vietnam's nuclear program. Korea is one of the few countries with operating, exporting nuclear plant technology, after building units in the UAE. Vietnam is restarting its long-delayed nuclear program and Lam said publicly that Hanoi welcomes Korean investment in semiconductors, AI data centers, and smart seaports alongside the reactors.

Korea was already Vietnam's largest source of foreign direct investment, with two-way trade at $90 billion in 2025. The new deals push that further.

The signal to Beijing

Lee did not name China once on either leg. He did not have to. Korea's two biggest economic exposures are still Beijing and Washington. Building a Delhi-Hanoi axis with nuclear, energy and AI data centers gives Seoul a third lever and a hedge against US tariff policy and Chinese supply concentration.

For Hyundai, POSCO, Samsung and HD Hyundai, the message is direct. The Korean state will help finance Asia diversification, and the customers are India and Vietnam.

Sources: Yonhap News, Korea Herald, The Straits Times, VietnamNet