By UN Journal Kayla Lee

Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul, who is on an official visit to Poland, held a bilateral meeting with Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski in Warsaw, Poland, on March 5.

The two ministers exchanged views on bilateral relations, the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and major regional and international issues, including the war in Ukraine, during a luncheon meeting following their bilateral meeting.

Minister Cho expressed his pleasure at being invited by Minister Sikorski to visit Poland, the first visit by a South Korean foreign minister to Poland in six years and the first official visit to Poland in 18 years, and expressed his appreciation for the further development of the strategic partnership between South Korea and Poland through reciprocal visits by the leaders of the two countries in 2023-24, and called for continued active high-level exchanges.

The two ministers acknowledged that the unprecedented scale of defense cooperation between the two countries has become an important pillar of the bilateral relationship, and agreed to continue to promote defense cooperation unwaveringly as the two countries are the best strategic partners for defense and security.

In particular, Cho noted that the presence of the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) delegation in the Polish visit and talks demonstrates the government's all-round support and efforts to strengthen defense cooperation, and the two ministers agreed to provide all possible support, including government-to-government consultations, to ensure that the second implementation contract for the K2 tank, currently under bilateral consultation, is signed as soon as possible.

Cho said that cooperation between the two countries is also deepening in economic fields such as energy and infrastructure, and that Poland has become one of Korea's top five trading partners in the EU as of last year based on steadily increasing trade volume, and requested the Polish government's support and assistance for the stable activities of Korean companies in Poland. Sikorski explained that South Korea is Poland's second-largest non-EU investor and largest Asian investor, and promised to keep Cho's request in mind.

The two ministers recognized that the security of Europe and the Asia-Pacific region are becoming increasingly intertwined, and agreed to further strengthen cooperation on trans-regional security in the framework of the NATO-IP4 partnership.