President Park Geun-hye arrived in Chile Tuesday for a three-day state visit to deepen bilateral ties.

The trip comes as South Korea is pushing to expand its relations with Chile beyond economic cooperation. Chile is the first foreign country with which South Korea signed a free trade deal.

Park plans to hold summit talks with her Chilean counterpart, Michelle Bachelet, on Wednesday. Park and Bachelet are both the first female leaders of their countries.

"I will discuss ways to further expand bilateral cooperation," Park said in a meeting with about 200 people from the Korean community in Chile.

Chile is the third stop on Park's four-nation swing to South America that South Korean officials say is designed to boost economic ties with the region. Seoul officials hail the region as a continent of opportunities.

She visited Colombia and Peru and is set to travel to Brazil before returning home.

Earlier Tuesday, she attended a rollout ceremony for the first basic trainer jet in Lima, along with her Peruvian counterpart, Ollanta Humala, the latest in a series of moves to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the aviation sector.

The trainer jet was assembled at facilities inside hangers at Las Palmas Air Base in cooperation with Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd., South Korea's sole aircraft manufacturer.

Under a 2012 deal, KAI is helping Peru assemble 15 other turbo-prop trainer jets called the KT-1P for the Peruvian Air Force. Separately, KAI has already built and delivered four trainer jets to Peru.

"I am confident that today's meaningful event will lay the basis for consistent development of Peru's aviation industry," Park said at the ceremony.

Humala also said that the joint production of the trainer jets gave a big boost to his country's aviation industry.

The comments came as KAI is competing with foreign rivals to win a deal worth about $1 billion for Peru's next-generation light attack aircraft. (Yonhap)