SEOUL– South Korea’s Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup will travel to Cambodia next week to attend an annual regional security meeting, involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), his ministry said Friday.
Under the theme of “Solidarity for Harmonized Security,” the three-day ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) is set to kick off on Tuesday. It will bring together defense chiefs from 10 ASEAN countries and eight others, including the United States, China and Japan.
During the meeting, Lee plans to explain Seoul’s new Indo-Pacific strategy that President Yoon Suk-yeol unveiled while in Cambodia to attend a series of ASEAN-related gatherings last week, according to the ministry.
The strategy focuses on promoting freedom, peace and prosperity in the region of growing strategic importance while seeking to cement the “rules-based” international order built on universal values.
The minister also plans to seek participants’ support for Seoul’s “audacious” initiative designed to help the North improve its economy in return for denuclearization steps.
On the margins of the ADMM-Plus, Lee plans to hold bilateral talks with his counterparts from Australia, China, Vietnam and the Philippines to discuss defense cooperation.
ADMM-Plus opened its inaugural session in 2010 to enhance defense cooperation between members of ASEAN and other regional states and has been held annually since 2018.
Source: Yonhap News Agency