President Lee Myung-bak will embark on a tour of four Latin American nations Sunday, including Mexico for the Group of 20 summit and Brazil for the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development. He will also visit Chile and Colombia.

During the two-day G20 summit in Los Cabos which begins on June 18, Lee and world leaders will discuss multilateral cooperation to tackle the eurozone financial crisis and spur growth as well as measures for global financial regulatory reforms and green growth, his aides said.

Ahead of the forum, Lee will attend the B20 Business Summit to deliver a keynote speech on the role of the government and enterprises for economic revitalization and sustainable growth.

He will then fly to Brazil’s old capital of Rio de Janeiro to attend the U.N. conference, dubbed “Rio+20” summit, from June 20-22.

Lee is to make a keynote address to urge participants to actively seek green growth strategies to address global challenges such as climate change and the ongoing loss of biodiversity.

In Brazil, Lee will attend a ceremony where Seoul’s Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and other representatives of some 10 countries are to sign a global treaty to make the Global Green Growth Institute an international body. Participating countries include Denmark, Australia, Britain and Mexico.

Seoul established the GGGI in June 2010 to spearhead the global green growth initiative.

On July 21, Lee will visit Chile at the invitation of his counterpart Sebastian Pinera.

During their summit the next day, the two leaders will discuss ways to enhance bilateral ties that were established five decades ago. They will also talk about cooperation in resources, infrastructure, renewable energy, environment and defense.

From June 23 for three days, Lee will pay a state visit to Colombia on the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations.

On July 25, Lee and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos will hold summit talks during which they will discuss bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, infrastructure, energy, resources, defense, science technology and development, the presidential office said.

He will be the first South Korean head-of-state to visit Colombia, which is the only Latin American state that sent combat troops to fight under the U.N. banner during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Lee is to return to Seoul on June 27.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)