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Korean Defense minister to visit Romania, Poland for arms cooperation
Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik will visit Romania and Poland this week for bilateral discussions on defense and arms cooperation, his office said Friday, amid Seoul's push to clinch more arms exports, https://en.yna.co.kr/ reports.
For the first leg of his trip, Shin will visit Romania from Monday through Wednesday for talks with his Romanian counterpart, Angel Tilvar, on expanding defense and arms cooperation, according to his office. Shin is also scheduled to pay a courtesy call on Romanian Prime Minister Ion-Marcel Ciolacu.
On Wednesday, Shin will leave for a three-day visit to Poland where he is slated to co-chair a joint ministerial committee meeting on bilateral defense and arms industry cooperation with his Polish counterpart, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz.
South Korea and Poland held the inaugural session of the regular consultative body in Seoul in June last year, following a roll-out ceremony for the first FA-50GF light attack aircraft exported to Poland, seen as a symbolic display of their growing cooperation in the arms industry.
During the visit, Shin will also visit an air base where the FA-50 light combat aircraft have been deployed.
Shin's trip comes as South Korea has been pushing to boost arms exports, with his Romanian visit expected to touch on South Korean arms the East European country has shown interest in, such as K9 self-propelled howitzers, Redback infantry fighting vehicles and K2 tanks.
In 2022, Poland signed procurement deals worth 17 trillion won (US$12.3 billion) to buy K2 tanks, K9 self-propelled howitzers, FA-50 light attack aircraft and Chunmoo multiple rocket launchers to bolster its defenses in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war.