Page 201 - 2018 Defense White Paper

and France, and expand the boundaries of its defense diplomacy to countries in Central and

Northern Europe.

| Central and South America | The ROK has been actively engaging in economic cooperation

with countries in Central and South America, and is also continuously exploring ways of defense
cooperation by, for example, vitalizing high-level military off icial exchanges.
In June 2017, the ROK government’s delegation for defense industrial cooperation with

Central and South America visited Colombia and Mexico, and learned about their defense
industries, and conf irmed the possibility of defense industrial cooperation with the ROK. In
August 2017, a Mexican naval training ship visited the Busan base as part of its midshipman

cruise training, providing an occasion for the ROK and Mexico to build a close cooperative
relationship. In October 2017, the ROK Deputy Minister for Military Force and Resources
Management met with Ecuador’s Chief of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces, who
visited the ROK to attend the Seoul ADEX, and discussed ways to vitalize defense cooperation

and defense industrial cooperation.
The MND will maintain friendly relations with key countries in Central and South America by
Chapter 5
vitalizing regular high-level military official exchanges and actively pursuing defense industrial
cooperation.

| Africa | In March 2017, the ROK Vice Minister of National Defense visited Angola

and signed an MOU on defense cooperation. During the visit, the two countries agreed to
vitalize bilateral defense exchanges and cooperation in various areas including senior military
of f icial exchanges, exchanges between each service of their armed forces, and defense industrial

cooperation.
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In July 2017, a MND delegation visited Ethiopia and Uganda, and held the 1 Defense
Policy Talks with each nation, and these meetings helped the MND delegation as well as the

representatives of Ethiopia and Uganda broaden their understanding of each other’s regional
situations. The ROK and the two African nations decided to continuously strengthen bilateral
defense exchange and cooperation. In September 2017, the ROK Vice Minister of National

Defense held separate talks with the Vice Defense Ministers of Ethiopia and Uganda who
visited the ROK to attend the SDD, and discussed ways to promote bilateral cooperation with
each Vice Defense Minister. In December 2017, a delegation from the Ethiopian Ministry of

Section 3 Expansion of Defense Exchanges and Cooperation 199