The top military officers of South Korea and Qatar held talks in Seoul on Thursday to discuss ways to strengthen military cooperation, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said. JCS Chairman Adm. Kim Myung-soo and his Qatari counterpart, Lt. Gen. Salem Bin Hamad Al-Nabit, discussed the security situations on the Korean Peninsula and in the Middle East, as well as expanding joint exercises and boosting personnel exchanges, according to the JCS. Al-Nabit also showed interest in South Korean weapons systems and training methods, it said, noting that he will visit Air Force units and local defense companies during his trip to the country. The talks came after Defense Minister Shin Won-sik and his Qatari counterpart, Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah, signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen bilateral defense cooperation in Doha in February. Seoul has recently sought to boost military and arms industry ties with countries in the Middle East amid efforts to win major defense contracts. Last November, South Ko rean defense company LIG Nex1 clinched a US$3.2 billion deal to export the Mid-range Surface-to-Air Missile Block-II (M-SAM II) system to Saudi Arabia. South Korea has announced plans to secure a 5 percent share of the global arms export market to become the fourth-largest defense exporter by 2027. Source: Yonhap News Agency
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