SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea and Australia’s defence chiefs agreed on Tuesday to step up defence cooperation, South Korea’s defence ministry said.
Korean Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup met his Australian counterpart Richard Marles on the sidelines of the inaugural S. Korea-Pacific Islands Summit in Seoul.
Lee expressed the South Korean military’s willingness to join the Indo-Pacific Endeavor, an Australian-led multinational military drill, as well as Operation Render Safe, an underwater anti-mine drill in the Pacific.
The two countries also agreed to hold working-level meetings as part of steps to revise a memorandum of understanding signed in 2011 aimed at enhancing defense industry cooperation.
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
