SEOUL (Kyodo) — Japan and South Korea agreed Sunday to advance talks on defense equipment and technology cooperation as the two U.S. allies deepen security ties amid improving relations.
Meeting in Seoul, Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and his counterpart Ahn Gyu-back agreed to move forward with the discussions, following Tokyo’s April revision of its defense equipment transfer rules.
The ministers also welcomed the resumption earlier this month of a joint search-and-rescue exercise between the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and the South Korean Navy for the first time in about nine years, as well as the launch of talks between their defense authorities on artificial intelligence, Japan’s Defense Ministry said.
In their fourth face-to-face talks since November, the two agreed to broaden the drills to improve coordination in responding to maritime emergencies and reaffirmed their commitment to closer communication and stable, future-oriented defense cooperation, the ministry said.
Koizumi’s visit to Seoul, following Ahn’s trip to Japan in January, comes after their agreement to conduct reciprocal visits and regular defense talks.
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The Japanese defense minister said it was only the second time Japanese and South Korean defense ministers have exchanged visits within a single year, and the first in 23 years.
The two countries have stepped up defense cooperation as relations improve after years of tensions over issues stemming from Japan’s wartime past.
“Concrete defense cooperation is steadily advancing on the foundation of strong mutual trust,” Koizumi told reporters after the meeting.
The ministers also exchanged views on regional security developments, including the previous day’s joint flight by Chinese and Russian military aircraft over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea.
Koizumi said the operation “could only be viewed as a show of force directed at our country.”
Asked about a possible Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, which would allow the two sides to provide logistical support to each other’s defense forces, Koizumi declined to give details.
But he noted South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has described such an agreement as a practical necessity, while acknowledging domestic public sentiment regarding Japan’s wartime past.
The ministers reaffirmed their commitment to Japan-South Korea cooperation and trilateral coordination involving the United States, including efforts toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula amid North Korea’s nuclear and missile development.
They also agreed to expand exchanges between the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s Blue Impulse demonstration squadron and South Korea’s Black Eagles aerobatic team. Koizumi and Ahn visited the Black Eagles unit at a South Korean Air Force base in Wonju on Saturday.