Page 217 - 2020 Defence White Paper

Section

3 Promoting Substantiality
and Expansion of Defense

Exchanges and Cooperation

The ROK Armed Forces is strengthening strategic defense exchanges and cooperation
with neighboring countries including China, Japan, and Russia to establish peace on the
Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia. The ROK Armed Forces is also implementing
the New Southern Policy and the New Northern Policy at the defense level, considering
the increasing roles and responsibilities of ASEAN and India in the regional security
domain and the potential of Eurasia. At the same time, the ROK Armed Forces has been
continuously promoting exchanges and cooperation with traditional allies in Western
Europe and Oceania while diversifying the targets of defense diplomacy to the Middle
East and Central and South America.

1. Promoting Strategic Defense Exchanges and Cooperation with Chapter 6
Neighboring Countries

Defense Exchanges and The ROK and China have made rapid progress in
Cooperation with China various areas, such as politics, economy, society,
and culture for 28 years since the establishment of
diplomatic relations in 1992. After the two countries established friendly cooperative

relations in the course of diplomatic ties, their relationship was upgraded to a
"strategic cooperative partnership" in 2008.
In December 2017, during the ROK-China Summit, the two leaders agreed to
expand bilateral cooperation to areas such as politics, diplomacy, and security and to
vitalize various high-level dialogues. In December 2018, the defense authorities of
the ROK and China agreed on the full
normalization of defense exchanges
and cooperation. The two countries
have been reinforcing their strategic
communication through two defense
ministerial meetings (Asia Security
Summit in June and ADMM-Plus in
November) and the 5th vice-ministerial
strategic defense dialogue in October, ROK–China Defense Ministerial Talks (June 2019)

Chapter 6. Developing a Robust ROK–US Alliance that is Mutually Complementary and Promoting Defense Exchanges and Cooperation 215