Seoul, July 21 (IANS) The top military officers of South Korea and Australia held talks over the phone Tuesday to discuss the security environment of the Indo-Pacific region and agreed to expand military cooperation, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.
JCS Chairman General Jin Yong-sung held his first phone call with Admiral Mark Hammond, during which the two sides shared their assessment of the regional security environment, including North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Jin thanked Australia for its continued contributions to ensuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the Indo-Pacific region as a participating nation in the 1950-53 Korean War and a core security partner for South Korea.
In response, Hammond pledged to further strengthen trust between their militaries and expand future-oriented military exchanges and cooperation.
The two officers also agreed to further expand military exchanges and cooperation in effectively countering the changing security environment, including through joint exercises and personnel exchanges.
On April 30, top diplomats of South Korea and Australia held talks and agreed to enhance cooperation to ensure stable supplies of diesel and other energy resources amid global supply disruptions caused by the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.
South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and his Australian counterpart, Penny Wong, adopted a joint statement during their meeting in Seoul, covering high-level exchanges, economic security, defence cooperation and regional security issues.
“The ROK and Australia share deep concern over the situation in the Middle East and its consequences for our region, including impacts on energy, resources and other important commodities,” the governments said in a joint statement. The ROK is the acronym of South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
The two sides reaffirmed their commitment “to working together to strengthen energy resource security, including efforts to maintain a stable, secure and reliable supply of diesel and other liquid fuels, energy resource commodities, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) and condensate.”
They also promised to “notify and consult each other on any potential disruptions as far as practicable,” the statement read.
The two sides also vowed to deepen regional cooperation, accelerate energy transition, address unjustified import and export restrictions, and support open trade arrangements for energy resources and liquid fuels so as to strengthen energy supply chain resilience.
Australia is South Korea’s largest LNG supplier and one of its key suppliers of condensate and critical minerals, while South Korea is one of Australia’s major suppliers of diesel and a key supplier of refined petroleum products.
During the talks, Cho and Wong also discussed ways to expand cooperation in the defence industry by building on momentum from a South Korean defence firm’s establishment of the first overseas manufacturing hub in Australia, the ministry said.
–IANS
akl/
