President Lee Jae Myung spoke over the phone with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Monday.

Presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a press briefing that in the phone call on Monday morning, Anwar congratulated the South Korean leader on his election and Lee expressed his appreciation. 

Kang said the two leaders agreed to work closely together to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two nations. 

President Lee pledged to further advance their friendly and cooperative relations based on the trust and friendship the two nations have built over more than half a century, noting that this year marks the 65th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

The two leaders agreed to work together to expand mutually beneficial and substantive cooperation across a wide range of areas, including trade, investment, infrastructure, digital transformation and the defense industry, with the goal of concluding a bilateral free trade agreement before the end of this year. 

They also agreed to strengthen international cooperation to advance ties between South Korea and members of the Association for Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) and to address regional and global challenges, as Malaysia is this year’s ASEAN chair and South Korea is this year’s APEC chair.