Wi Sung-lac, director of the National Security Office, briefs reporters at the Korean press center in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday (local time) on President Lee Jae Myung's NATO summit schedule. [Yonhap]
Wi Sung-lac, director of the National Security Office, briefs reporters at the Korean press center in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday (local time) on President Lee Jae Myung's NATO summit schedule. [Yonhap]

President Lee Jae Myung, attending the NATO summit in Turkey, said he has launched negotiations with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte toward concluding a "basic procurement agreement" between South Korea and the alliance.

Wi Sung-lac, director of the presidential National Security Office, told reporters at a briefing at the press center in Ankara on Tuesday (local time) that South Korea had "secured a foothold for building a solid defense industry supply chain with the world's largest NATO defense market."

Wi said the agreement would establish the legal and administrative framework governing logistics and defense cooperation and procurement contracts between NATO and partner countries. Once concluded, he said, it would create an institutional basis for Korean companies to participate in NATO's joint procurement market, projected to be worth 15 trillion won ($9.79 billion) annually.

Wi added that South Korea would also join, as a new observer, NATO's multinational cooperative project on defense industry raw materials — on top of its existing observer roles in the alliance's ammunition and space projects. "This represents a further expansion of multinational cooperation," he said.

He stressed that participating in the ammunition, defense and raw materials projects "will strengthen interoperability between South Korean and NATO weapons systems and contribute to creating stable procurement conditions for Korean military supplies."

Wi also highlighted cooperation prospects in advanced future industries. He said South Korea's participation in space-related projects would help expand the country's launch opportunities by leveraging NATO's space industry infrastructure.

"NATO has accumulated experience in future warfare shaped by advanced technologies such as drones and AI through the war in Ukraine," Wi said, adding that South Korea would pursue participation by Korean companies in NATO's innovation testing grounds.

NATO counts 32 member states — including the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada and France — and accounts for 55 percent of global defense spending, making it the world's largest defense market.

Attention also turned to the prospect of a meeting between Lee and US President Donald Trump. There had been speculation that Lee might attend a reception hosted by Trump on Wednesday.

However, Wi said the idea had not materialized. "There was an idea, but it did not take shape. That's about it," he said.


sang@heraldcorp.com