00:01How's your Wednesday? Because today, European leaders Antonio Costa and Ursula von der Leyen are hosting South Korean President Lee
00:09Jae-myung for the EU Summit.
00:12Meanwhile, their northern neighbors in Pyongyang have a busy schedule hosting China.
00:17Look, your reporter won't cover every single summit here, but this one matters.
00:22And if anyone asks why the EU quarter is buzzing, let the President explain.
00:26Oh, I'm preparing for the EU-Korea Summit next week, listen.
00:32Indeed, but our partnership and friendship with Korea is not only about K-pop, it's much, much more.
00:39Alright, so if it is not just about K-pop, what is it about then?
00:43The big news is a newly finalized digital trade agreement, which sets binding rules for data flows and e-commerce.
00:51But the real driver here is defense and geopolitics.
00:54And following a security pact which was signed two years ago, the EU is rapidly fortifying ties across the Indo
01:01-Pacific.
01:02And amid rising tensions, some EU politicians are even pitching a NATO-style economic deterrence pact with Seoul to block
01:10trade cohesion from Washington or Beijing.
01:12And we are not talking about pocket money here.
01:15Total trade topped over 120 billion euros last year.
01:19Huh, it's a busy two-way street.
01:22Europe mainly sends over factory machinery and chemical products.
01:26But in return, Europeans buy a huge number of South Korean cars, microchips and home electronics.
01:33And South Korea is a tech powerhouse, spending nearly 5% of its GDP on research.
01:38Which, by the way, is more than double the European average.
01:42Their microchips and batteries power Europe's everyday economy, backed by heavy Korean investments inside Germany, Poland and Hungary.
01:50And Europeans are rapidly entering an era where international security is just as much about safeguarding microchip supplies and electric
01:59vehicle batteries as it is about traditional military firepower.
02:03But look, if you are still not sold on the high-stakes world of semiconductor defense, there's always the K
02:10-pop left for you.
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