President Lee Myung-bak returned home Saturday from a trip to Russia and France that included talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on a gas pipeline project and a G20 summit aimed at tackling the eurozone debt problems.

In a two-day visit to Russia’s second-largest city of Saint Petersburg, Lee and Medvedev agreed to work closely together on the massive project to build a gas pipeline linking the two countries via North Korea.

Lee then attended this year’s G20 summit in the southern French city of Cannes as head of one of the “troika” countries, which refers to the previous, current and next hosts of the global economic forum.

South Korea hosted a G20 summit in November last year.

During the summit, Lee urged debt-laden nations to carry out thorough restructuring measures to bring the eurozone crisis under control, cautioned against protectionist policies and called for greater efforts to help needy nations. 

(Yonhap News)