Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul spoke by phone with his Australian counterpart, Penny Wong, on Thursday and discussed bilateral relations, defense cooperation and other regional and global issues, Cho’s office said.

The two ministers noted the “strong and close” partnership the two countries have built over the past years and agreed to work together to “strengthen bilateral communications and solidarity as like-minded countries to promote peace and regional stability,” according to Seoul’s foreign ministry.

Cho thanked Australia for its support in and attention to defense cooperation with South Korea, citing a few recent military vehicle export contracts won by a South Korean defense firm last year, and hoped for such cooperation to continue in the field.

Cho and Wong also agreed on the need to hold “two plus two” ministerial talks among the foreign and defense chiefs at an early date. The talks had initially been scheduled for October last year but were postponed amid the Middle East tensions from the Israe
l-Hamas war.

Thursday’s phone talks marked the first of its kind with his Australian counterpart since Cho took office early this month. Cho has held phone talks with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa.

Source: Yonhap News Agency