Page 192 - 2018 Defense White Paper

defense cooperation and defense industrial cooperation tailored to characteristics of each

country in efforts to meet their respective security needs.
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In September 2017, at the 6 Vice–Ministerial Defense Strategic Dialogue, the ROK and
Vietnam discussed senior off icial exchanges, peacekeeping operations, and promotion of

maritime security cooperation. The two countries agreed on the need to enhance defense
industrial cooperation and logistics cooperation to the level that matches their “strategic
cooperative partnership.”

In the same month, the ROK and Myanmar held vice–ministerial bilateral talks on the
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occasion of the Seoul Defense Dialogue (SDD), and Myanmar became the 6 ASEAN member
state to sign an MOU on defense cooperation with the ROK.

In 2018, a greater emphasis was put on defense cooperation and defense industrial cooperation
between the ROK and Southeast Asian nations after establishment of the “government-wide
comprehensive plan to pursue New Southern Cooperation”.
In late January 2018, while attending the Fullerton Forum 23) in Singapore to deliver a keynote

speech, the ROK Minister of National Defense hosted meetings with the Defense Ministers
of Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand, and paid a visit to the President of Indonesia, Prime

Minister of Singapore, and Prime Minister of Thailand. In 2018, the ROK government
discussed bilateral coordination for multilateral security cooperation within the region as well
as ways to bolster strategic cooperation, with Singapore, the 2018 chair of ASEAN. With
Indonesia, whose relationship with the ROK was elevated to a “special strategic partnership”

after President Moon Jae-in’s visit in November 2017, the ROK government explored ways to
strengthen mutually benef icial cooperation in the f ields of security and defense industry. In the
ROK–Thailand Defense Ministerial Meeting that took place for the first time in 18 years to

commemorate the 60 anniversary of diplomatic relations, both sides agreed to carry out close
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cooperation on vitalizing exchanges in the defense and defense industry sector.
In March 2018, the ROK Minister of National Defense met with Singapore’s Defense

Minister who visited the ROK to discuss the agenda for the upcoming ADMM-Plus. The two

23) A track 1.5 (government plus civilian participants) director general–level multilateral security consultative
meeting known as the Shangri-La Dialogue Sherpa meeting established in 2002 by (under the supervision of)
the United Kingdom’s International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the forum is participated by around 30
countries from the Asia-Pacific region, including the ROK, the United States, China, Japan, and Russia, as well
as the EU and NATO.

190 Chapter 5 Development of the ROK–U.S. Alliance, and Expansion of Defense Exchanges and Cooperation