South Korean President Moon Jae-in was set to urge increased cooperation between his country and India in a series of meetings with top Indian officials Monday, along with a rare trip to a production facility of Samsung Electronics Co. in New Delhi, his office Cheong Wa Dae said.

Moon was scheduled to begin his day with a meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, followed by a meeting with India's Vice President Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu.

The meetings come one day before Moon's bilateral summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in (2nd from L) pays his respect to Hindu leaders during his visit to the Akshardham Hindu temple in New Delhi that was made shortly after his arrival in the Indian capital on July 8, 2018. (Yonhap)

Moon arrived in the Indian capital Sunday for a four-day state visit, the first of his kind since he took office in May 2017.

"We expect the trip to be an important opportunity to strengthen friendship and trust between the leaders and to create a basis for the development of our country's complementary and mutually beneficial cooperation with India and Singapore to establish future-oriented and strategic relations with the countries," a Cheong Wa Dae official said earlier of Moon's trip to the South Asian country. The South Korean president is currently on a two-nation trip that will later take him to Singapore.

Moon will attend a joint business forum of Indian and South Korean business leaders later in the day.

He will then make a rare visit to a local factory of Samsung Electronics Co. to mark the recent completion of its construction.

In 2017, Samsung supplied 41.8 percent of all smartphones sold in India, closely trailed by Chinese competitors with a market share of 40.9 percent, Seoul officials said earlier.

Seoul and New Delhi already have a free trade agreement, known as the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, that went into effect at the start of 2010. They are currently seeking to expand the free trade pact, with five rounds of official negotiations held so far.

The Moon-Modi summit will mark the second of its kind as the leaders first met on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Germany last year. It will be followed by Moon's meeting with his Indian counterpart, Ram Nath Kovind, and a state dinner to be hosted by the Indian president. (yonhap)

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