Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

Vice defense minister holds ROK-ASEAN vice defense ministerial meeting on the sidelines of Seoul Defense Dialogue 2022

On September 6, Vice Minister of National Defense Shin Beom-chul held 「ROK-ASEAN Vice Defense Ministerial Meeting 2022」 with representatives from each ASEAN country on the sidelines of Seoul Defense Dialogue 2022.

*Participating ASEAN countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam

The ROK-ASEAN vice defense ministerial meeting was not held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but was held via video link in 2021 and was resumed as a face-to-face meeting this year.

Shin offered the assessment that the meeting has become firmly established as a representative multilateral body in the region, contributing to boosting defense cooperation and promoting peace between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and ASEAN since its was first held in 2017.

Shin also explained the performance status of the twelve cooperation tasks (‘ROK-ASEAN defense cooperation implementation plan), which have been updated after being unveiled in the ROK-ASEAN defense ministerial meeting last year.

Vice defense ministers from each ASEAN country promised to provide proactive support to the ROK’s ‘ROK-ASEAN defense cooperation implementation plan’ and hoped to work together with the ROK to seek and develop a cooperative plan in various areas.