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India and South Korea agree to nearly double trade to $50B by 2030

NEW DELHI (AP) — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Monday, with both leaders pledging to nearly double bilateral trade to deepen economic and strategic ties.

Modi said India and South Korea aim to increase trade between their countries from about $27 billion to $50 billion by 2030 by strengthening supply chains, improving market access and encouraging greater investment.

“India and South Korea are going to transform their trusted ties into a futuristic partnership,” he said.

Talks between Modi and Lee come as both countries are looking to strengthen ties amid global economic uncertainty and supply chain disruptions triggered by the Iran war.

Lee said the two sides agreed to significantly upgrade economic cooperation, focusing on sectors such as shipbuilding, defense and artificial intelligence. He added that both countries would also expand industrial collaboration and step up trade and investment in advanced manufacturing as well as sensitive areas including critical minerals and nuclear energy.

As part of efforts to strengthen supply chains, Lee said that South Korea plans to increase import of naphtha, a crude-oil derivative, from India to cushion potential disruptions linked to tensions in the Middle East. India accounted for about 8% of South Korea’s naphtha imports last year.

Lee is scheduled to travel to Vietnam after concluding his visit to India.

Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes, threatens to end talks to end the war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks. Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas, without Iran's direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic — setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran. Iran insists it alone must govern the strait after the war, upending decades of the world considering that the strait was international waters free for all, despite its sitting in Iran and Oman's territorial waters. Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through the Oman route, backed by a United Nations agency, in recent days. Early Sunday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the United States.
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