South Korea president Mr Lee Myung bak on Monday sought Indian government’s cooperation in building the USD 12 billion steel plant in Orissa, in the face of people’s agitation over land acquisition for the project.

The issue came up for discussions between Mr Lee and visiting Indian President Pratibha Patil.

A statement from Cheong Wa Dae News president’s office said that “President Lee hoped that the Korean companies expand their participation in construction of infrastructure such as road, power and plant, and called for cooperation of the Indian side in order to realize early POSCO project in Orissa State.”

It said that “Both leaders agreed to cooperate in order to conclude discussion on the on going aviation agreement, an agreement on maritime transport and double tax avoidance agreement in the direction of mutual benefits.”

The two leaders also discussed ways to further expand bilateral cooperation besides touching regional and international issues.

The statement added that “Leaders of the two nations evaluated that substantial cooperation between the two countries in diplomacy, security, economy, trade, society and culture has greatly progressed since the bilateral relations was upgraded to ‘strategic partnership’ in January 2010 and agreed to expand cooperation particularly in politics, security and the defense industry.”

(Sourced from BL)