With NATO off the table, eyes turn to when Lee and Trump will finally meet

President Lee Jae-myung’s decision to skip this week’s NATO summit in The Hague has cast uncertainty over the timing of his long-anticipated first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. The two leaders were slated to hold their inaugural talks last week on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada, but the meeting fell through when Trump abruptly returned to Washington amid rising tensions in the Middle East.

South Korean officials are now working against the clock to make the meeting happen—ideally before August. If that timeline slips, diplomatic observers point to the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September or the APEC summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, in late October as likely alternatives.

The urgency is not just symbolic. With trade friction and regional security challenges mounting, the presidential office has made a first sit-down with Trump a top foreign policy objective. Wi Sung-lac, Lee’s national security adviser, reportedly encouraged the president to attend both the G7 and NATO summits, saying, “Meeting President Trump once and meeting him twice are not the same.” Lee initially agreed, according to aides.

But after the missed opportunity at the G7 and signs that Trump might also forgo NATO, Seoul recalibrated. “If Trump were attending both days of the NATO summit, we believed there would be a 20- to 30-minute window for a bilateral meeting,” one official said. “But once that became unclear, it no longer made sense for President Lee to go.”

Another official added, “Had Trump confirmed his attendance, we wouldn’t have had the option of staying home. But with the Middle East situation still fluid, this was the more prudent call.”

In Seoul’s political circles, the episode has been read through the lens of internal policy dynamics. Wi, who has long favored a strong alliance with the United States, was once grouped with the so-called “alliance faction,” in contrast to nationalist-leaning aides who advocate greater autonomy in foreign policy. His recommendation to attend both summits has fueled speculation of an internal tug-of-war over the administration’s diplomatic posture.

But insiders pushed back against that framing. “The dichotomy between ‘sovereignty’ and ‘alliance’ camps is outdated,” said one official in the ruling party. “This wasn’t about ideology. The circumstances were genuinely difficult this time.”