Page 199 - 2018 Defense White Paper

European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

In March 2017, the ROK and Finland held defense ministerial talks, where the two countries’
Defense Ministers discussed ways to enhance bilateral defense cooperation such as the expansion
of senior military of f icial exchanges and the vitalization of defense industrial cooperation.

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In the same month, the ROK and France held the 4 ROK–France Defense Strategic
Dialogue presided by the ROK Deputy Minister for National Defense Policy and France’s
Director General for International Relations and Strategy. During the meeting, the two sides

had concrete discussions on the cooperation matters agreed upon in the 2016 ROK–France
Defense Ministerial Talks. In September, the ROK Minister of National Defense and the French
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Defense Minister talked on the phone regarding North Korea’s 6 nuclear test and exchanged
views on the security situation on the Korean Peninsula.
The ROK Vice Minister of National Defense held meetings with the United Kingdom Minister
of State for Defense in April 2017, the Vice Chief of the Defense Staff in January 2018, and
the Commander of the Joint Forces Command in August 2018, and, again, with the Minister

of State for Defense in September 2018. ROK and United Kingdom of f icials highlighted the
two countries’ long-standing friendly cooperative relationship initiated by the United Kingdom

forces’ participation in the Korean War, and discussed regional security situations and issues
in defense cooperation and defense industrial cooperation as well as the direction of future Chapter 5
cooperation.
In January 2018, Spain’s Minister of Defense visited the ROK for the first time in 30 years

and held the ROK–Spain Defense Ministerial Meeting, where the two sides discussed various
issues in bilateral defense cooperation and defense industrial cooperation. The ROK and Spain
convened defense policy talks in April as a follow-up to the meeting to explore concrete ways

for defense cooperation.
In October 2018, during President Moon Jae-in’s visit to Italy, the ROK and Italy signed a
bilateral defense cooperation agreement and decided to further expand the scope of defense

cooperation.
In February 2018, the Defense Ministers of Switzerland and Latvia visited the ROK for the
2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang and held respective ministerial talks with the ROK

Minister of National Defense, sharing the view on the need to make joint efforts to expand
defense cooperation and defense industrial cooperation.
In the same month, the ROK Vice Minister of National Defense visited Hungary to attend

Section 3 Expansion of Defense Exchanges and Cooperation 197