President Lee Jae Myung met Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency, at the Blue House in Seoul on Sept. 17 to discuss energy-security cooperation, electrification and nuclear power as the Middle East crisis heightened global supply risks. Lee said South Korea would work with the IEA to strengthen Asia-Pacific energy-supply-chain resilience, while warning that the crisis was complicating the country’s shift toward renewable energy. Birol described electrification as a way to improve energy sovereignty, economic security and emissions performance, and said South Korea’s batteries, heavy electrical equipment, power-grid and electric-vehicle manufacturing capabilities positioned it as a model for other countries. The talks followed Lee’s proposal to expand IEA cooperation on the margins of the G7 Summit in France in June. Birol said the IEA had led a coordinated release of 400 million barrels of oil reserves by member states in response to the Middle East conflict. He also said he planned to propose at COP31 in Turkey in November that electricity’s share of energy consumption rise from 23% to 35% by 2035. The discussion covered nuclear power as a supplementary source alongside renewables, with Birol citing capacity expansion in France, Sweden, Britain and the Netherlands.