Ministry of National Defense Republic of Korea

ROK, Australia hold defense ministerial talks

On August 4, Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup and his Australian counterpart and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles held ROK-Australia defense ministerial talks in Canberra, Australia.

The meeting was held about fifty days after the ROK-Australia defense ministerial talks held last June on the sidelines of the 19th Asian Security Council (Shangri-La Dialogue), which were the first ROK-Australia defense ministerial talks held in Australia since Marles took office.

Lee stressed the need to solidify bilateral cooperation with Australia in the area of defense, based on the two countries' shared values of liberal democracy, clarifying that this visit to Australia aimed to fulfill the agreements made at the ROK-Australia summit held last June on the sidelines of President Yoon Suk Yeol’s first participation in a NATO summit as the president of the ROK.

Meanwhile, the two sides agreed to beef up bilateral cooperation through regular consultative bodies between the defense ministries and armed services of the two countries, including the ROK-Australia Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting (2+2), and also agreed to further strengthen cooperation in a range of areas, including bilateral and multilateral joint military exercises in the region, defense science and technology, space, and defense industry.