Lee congratulates Obama on re-election

By Kang Hyun-kyung

President Lee Myung-bak Wednesday spoke by phone with U.S. President Barack Obama to congratulate him on his re-election in the 2012 presidential race.

In a statement released shortly after the phone conversation, Cheong Wa Dae said President Lee noted that Seoul and Washington have worked closely together in all areas, including trade and security, over the past four years.

During the 10-minute conversation, Lee was quoted as saying that he firmly believed that Seoul-Washington relations will be further enhanced in the future.

President Obama was quoted as saying that South Korea-U.S. partnerships and his friendship with President Lee has strengthened the Korea-U.S. alliance and he thanked him for this.

Obama called President Lee “my friend,” Cheong Wa Dae said.

In an interview with CNN earlier this year, the U.S. president called President Lee one of the foreign leaders that he had strong bonds.

The other four are British Prime Minister David Cameron, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Their call came about a week after Lee sent a congratulatory message to Obama after the sitting U.S. president won the presidential election to get four more years in the White House.