South Korea, India to hold summit this month

South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold talks later this month to discuss ways to boost bilateral ties, the presidential office here said on Tuesday.

Modi will be in South Korea from May 18-19 in his first visit to the country since taking office last May, according to South Korea's (Yonhap) News Agency.

The two leaders plan to compare notes on expanding cooperation in such fields as diplomacy, security, defense, economy and culture, her office said.

Their meeting comes after Park made a state visit to India in January 2014 to promote economic relations with the world's second-most populous nation, whose economy has made great leaps forward over the past years.

In 2010, South Korea and India forged a strategic partnership aimed at bolstering bilateral ties in economics, diplomacy and culture, and signed the free trade pact called the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

Seoul has called for upgrading the CEPA in an effort to open the massive market of 1.2 billion people wider to Korean firms, but India has been reluctant due mainly to concerns that its trade deficits could grow.