On the 7th (local time) in Turkiye, President Lee Jae Myung met with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Mark Rutte and launched negotiations to conclude a ‘Korea-NATO Basic Procurement Agreement’. The core is to establish the legal and administrative procedures required for logistics and defense industry cooperation with NATO and for procurement contracts.

Wi Sung-rak, Director of the Office of National Security, announced this at a local briefing in Ankara the same day, saying, “If the agreement is concluded, an institutional foundation will be put in place for our companies to participate in the NATO common procurement market, which is estimated at 15 trillion won annually.”

A senior official at the presidential office said, “Up to now, we have pursued bilateral cooperation with individual countries; if a procurement agreement is concluded with NATO as a whole, the channels for joint procurement or participation in defense cooperation frameworks across NATO member states will expand,” adding, “We will strive to conclude it as quickly as possible.”

The government also decided to newly join, as an observer, defense industry and raw materials projects among the multinational cooperation programs in which NATO allies jointly develop equipment and materiel capabilities, in addition to the ammunition and space projects where it has already been participating as an observer. Wi said, “Participation in defense industry and raw materials projects will strengthen interoperability between Korean and NATO weapons systems, broaden the foundation for our companies to enter the NATO defense market, and help create stable conditions for procuring our military supplies.”

President Lee also emphasized the need to standardize weapons systems between NATO and South Korea. At the NATO defense industry forum held in Ankara that day, he said, “Each country has different standards, ways of production, and production practices,” adding, “Unifying these standards will become an important task.” The presidential office believes this can improve Korean defense companies’ access to exporting weapons to the NATO market.

The government is also pushing for domestic companies to participate in a NATO innovation training ground that evaluates and verifies civilian innovative technologies, such as drones and artificial intelligence (AI), in real battlefield environments. Wi said, “Through the war in Ukraine, NATO has accumulated experience with future warfare shaped by advanced technologies such as drones,” “Our companies will gain firsthand experience in how advanced technologies are operated on actual battlefields at the innovation training ground, and, with technologies recognized there, be able to knock on the door of NATO procurement and joint development projects.”

At a small-group meeting in Ankara attended by Secretary General Rutte and representatives from Indo-Pacific partner countries (IP4) including Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, President Lee said, “We will further solidify the defense industry partnership by strengthening standardization with NATO and building defense industry supply chains,” adding, “For this, cooperation not only between governments but also among defense companies is important.”

The government believes that if South Korea and Japan participate in NATO weapons system standardization, it will lead to improved interoperability of weapons systems among IP4 member countries, including South Korea and Japan. A senior presidential office official said, “There is no separate discussion of standardization between South Korea and Japan,” but added, “If South Korea increases its level of standardization with NATO and Japan approaches it similarly, we expect that, in the end, they will have similar criteria and specifications.”