President Lee Jae-myung and President Donald Trump held a summit on August 25, agreeing to strengthen bilateral economic cooperation, with a focus on the shipbuilding industry. In his opening remarks at the summit held in the White House Oval Office in Washington, D.C., President Lee stated, “It seems the United States is becoming great again.” He added, “A renaissance is occurring not only in the shipbuilding sector but also in manufacturing, and I hope South Korea can be part of that process.”

He further noted, “This change is also reflected in the Dow Jones Index, which, as I’ve seen, has hit an all-time high. I hope we can expand the Korea-U.S. alliance beyond the military sphere into economic and science technology fields, evolving it into a future-oriented partnership.” President Trump also kicked off the meeting by saying, “We’ll have a lot to discuss about shipyards and shipbuilding. Since the U.S. has largely shut down its shipbuilding industry, we’ll need to purchase from Korea.”

He expressed, “I hope that through collaboration with Korea, shipbuilding will resume in the U.S. I look forward to an opportunity to revive America’s shipbuilding industry in partnership with Korea.” During the Q&A session, when asked about the so-called “MASGA” project, Trump responded, “I think it will take time,” but added, “It will make American shipbuilding extremely great again.” The MASGA project is a shipbuilding cooperation initiative proposed by the Korean government to the U.S. ahead of tariff negotiations, standing for “Make America Shipbuilding Great Again.”

Trump also remarked, “I believe we are a mutually beneficial relationship. Our countries like each other’s products. Korea needs energy, and we have abundant resources in Alaska. I’d like to collaborate with Korea.” Previously, Korea agreed last month to purchase $100 billion worth of liquefied natural gas (LNG) or other energy products from the U.S. as part of concluded tariff negotiations.