Erdogan says South Korea could partner on Turkey's Sinop nuclear plant ahead of first Seoul visit since 2018
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said South Korea could become a partner in developing the planned Sinop nuclear power station on the Black Sea coast, ahead of a three-day state visit to Seoul and a summit with President Lee Jae Myung.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said South Korea could become a partner in developing Turkey's planned Sinop nuclear power station, in remarks reported on Monday, 2 November, as he began a three-day state visit to Seoul, his first to South Korea since 2018.
The comments came in an interview with South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, reported by Reuters. Erdogan said Turkey had been studying the technical and economic terms of the Black Sea project with South Korea's state-run Korea Electric Power Corporation, known as KEPCO.
Ankara would weigh financing, electricity costs and the benefits to the Turkish economy before choosing a partner, Erdogan said, stopping short of announcing a final decision. The cautious wording leaves the Sinop project as a live negotiation rather than a concluded deal, even as the visit puts it at the centre of the bilateral agenda.
Erdogan is due to hold a summit with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday, 3 November, according to Seoul's presidential office. The programme reported for the visit includes an official welcoming ceremony, the summit itself, a memorandum of understanding signing ceremony and a state dinner.
The visit is a reciprocal one, following Lee's state visit to Turkey in November 2025, when the two leaders agreed to expand their strategic partnership and signed understandings covering nuclear energy, infrastructure and veterans' affairs. South Korean officials have said the Seoul summit will review the implementation of last year's agreements and seek to turn them into concrete results.
In the Yonhap interview, Erdogan also identified defence, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and robotics as potential areas for cooperation, and called for more South Korean investment and joint production in Turkey. He invited South Korean companies to take part in Turkish transport and logistics projects linking Asia and Europe.
Trade is also on the agenda. Erdogan said the two countries were working towards a bilateral trade target of 15 billion dollars, while calling for efforts to address an imbalance in South Korea's favour. South Korean officials have in turn described the visit as a chance to strengthen the strategic partnership ahead of the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2027.
The Sinop plant, on Turkey's Black Sea coast, has long been part of Ankara's plans to expand nuclear power alongside its existing programme. KEPCO has been involved in the evaluation process for the project, and last year's joint statement noted that both governments would pay close attention and provide support so that the remaining evaluation proceeded smoothly.
Beyond energy, the summit is expected to range across regional issues. South Korean officials said the leaders would exchange views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the Middle East, as well as on cooperation in future industries such as biotechnology, energy, science and technology, and on people-to-people and cultural exchanges.
What happens next will depend on Tuesday's summit and on the commercial talks that follow it. A memorandum or a clearer statement on Sinop would mark a step forward for a project that has been discussed for years, while the wider test for both governments is whether the visit converts last year's strategic language into investment, joint production and a narrower trade gap.
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