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of this office. At the 9th Beijing Xiangshan Forum in October 2019, a ROK–
Malaysia defense vice-ministerial meeting was held to discuss ways to promote
defense exchanges and cooperation, such as cybersecurity cooperation and defense
industry cooperation, while a high-level defense talk with Cambodia at the Seoul
International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition (Seoul ADEX) was also held during
the same period. Based on the MOU on the ROK–Cambodia Defense Cooperation
signed in 2018, the two countries agreed to promote defense cooperation.
The MND is expanding its cooperation with Southeast Asian countries through
working-level policy meetings and regular meetings between military services. In
October 2019, the national defense policy working-level meeting that was agreed to
at the 7th ROK–Vietnam Strategic Defense Dialogue in October 2019 was held for
the first time during which the two nations utilized the opportunity to institutionalize
the basic framework of defense cooperation and to detail the cooperation plans for
specific areas. With the Philippines, the ROK designated year 2019, which marks the
70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries,
as the year of mutual exchanges between the ROK and the Philippines, and actively
promoted exchanges and cooperation in the defense domain. As for bilateral
relations, the ROK Air Force Chief of Staff visited the Philippines in February,
and the Chairman of the Philippines JCS visited Korea in May 2019, with a regular
consultative body between the two armed forces being established as well. Defense
industry and logistics cooperation between the two countries has also robustly
progressed with the revision of the MOU on Defense and Logistics Cooperation
in June and with the ROK providing the Philippines with retired naval vessels in

August. The visit of the Secretary of National Defense of the Philippines to the ROK
to attend the launching ceremony of a frigate also contributed to defense industry
and logistics cooperation. In September 2017, the ROK signed an MOU on defense
cooperation with Myanmar, laying the institutional foundation for defense exchanges
and cooperation and seeking cooperation measures to promote cooperation in
defense and the defense industry.
Meanwhile, the MND is actively promoting and diversifying defense cooperation
through regular consultative meetings and combined exercises between the MND
and each military service centering around Australia and New Zealand, the
traditional allies in Oceania which deployed troops to the ROK during the Korean
War.
The 4th ROK–Australia Foreign and Defense Ministers’ (2+2) Meeting in
December 2019 was held to discuss the security situation on the Korean Peninsula
and the Asia-Pacific region as well as ways to strengthen security and defense

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