The Hon Richard Marles MP
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The Hon Pat Conroy MP
20 Dec 24
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The Hon Richard Marles MP
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister for Defence
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30 May 2023
The Deputy Prime Minister has finished his two-day visit to the Republic of Korea (ROK) representing the Prime Minister at the 2023 Korea–Pacific Islands Summit and meeting separately with President Yoon and Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup.
At this morning’s meeting the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Lee agreed that Australia and the ROK would work on an enhanced bilateral framework, building on the 2011 Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation.
An updated framework would facilitate both governments’ ambitions to strengthen the defence partnership to better respond to the security challenges in the region.
The bilateral defence relationship is already growing under the 2021 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership including across defence industry, joint military exercises, training, science and technology.
Enhancing the bilateral framework would enable deeper cooperation, including towards interoperability between our defence forces.
The Deputy Prime Minister also held a roundtable with Korean defence industry representatives, discussing the opportunities out of the Defence Strategic Review.
He visited the Joint Security Area where he was briefed on United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC) and met Australian Defence Force personnel deployed to support demilitarisation activities on the Korean Peninsula.
At the inaugural Korea–Defence Pacific Islands Summit representatives from 18 members of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) met to reaffirm the shared commitment between Korea and the PIF, in support of a secure, peaceful and prosperous region.