India, S Korea focus on strengthening of defence partnership

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday met his South Korean counterpart Suh Wook and “explored new domains of bilateral defence cooperation and avenues to strengthen the long-standing bilateral defence partnership”, a press release by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) stated.
Suh arrived in India on Thursday for a three-day go to with a concentrate on boosting bilateral defence and navy cooperation.
According to the MoD assertion, Singh and Suh “successfully concluded their bilateral talks on defence cooperation” and acknowledged that the bilateral defence cooperation between the 2 sides has “broadened significantly in scale and scope across tri-service as well as agencies dealing with defence technology and industry”.
Noting that defence and safety engagements have “grown exponentially” between India and South Korea over the previous few years, the assertion stated that the international locations have “also found common ground on several multilateral fora and engagements”.
During their talks, the MoD assertion stated, the 2 ministers “reaffirmed their support to multilateral initiatives to promote lasting peace and stability in the region and beyond”. Singh said that the bilateral relations between each the international locations “are set to grow further and the meeting between them will give it the necessary impetus to take it to the next level”.
Both ministers expressed satisfaction “over the commitment exhibited by diverse agencies of both countries to sustain structured annual dialogues at various levels of leadership through virtual means when travel and physical engagements became increasingly challenging during the ongoing pandemic” which has “kept up the momentum of bilateral defence engagements”.
Singh and Suh additionally mentioned the influence of the pandemic on defence and safety engagements, together with one of the best practices adopted by the armed forces of the 2 nations.
The MoD assertion added that Singh “lauded the stellar contribution” of South Korea in pandemic mitigation efforts.
Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, the chiefs of Army, Navy and Air Force had been additionally a part of the Indian delegation, together with senior bureaucrats of the ministry.
Earlier within the day, Singh and Suh inaugurated the India-Korea Friendship Park in a ceremony on the Delhi Cantonment, which, the assertion stated, “is a symbol of close relations between both the countries and acknowledges the contribution of the Indian Army’s Medical Mission during the Korean War”.