President Lee Jae-myung formally launched negotiations to conclude a "framework procurement agreement" between Korea and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), marking the occasion of his meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
Wi Sung-lac, director of the National Security Office, announced this at a briefing held Sunday at a press center set up in Ankara, Turkey. "Through this attendance at the NATO summit, we have secured a foothold for entering the world's largest NATO defense market and for building a robust defense supply chain with NATO," he said. A framework procurement agreement stipulates the legal and administrative matters necessary for military and defense cooperation and procurement contracts between partner countries.
Wi said, "Once the agreement is concluded, an institutional foundation will be established for our companies to participate in the NATO joint procurement market, estimated at 15 trillion won annually."
Among the "multinational cooperation projects" in which NATO allies jointly develop equipment, materials, and capabilities, Korea will now newly join the defense raw materials project as an observer, in addition to the ammunition and space projects in which it has already participated as an observer. "Participation in multinational cooperation projects, which began on the occasion of last year's Hague summit, has expanded to a new field in just one year," Wi said. "This shows that Korea-NATO defense cooperation is not a one-time exchange but a cooperation that broadens its roots year after year."
He also assessed, "Participation in the ammunition and defense raw materials projects will strengthen interoperability between Korea-NATO weapons systems, broadening the foundation for our companies to enter the NATO defense market, while also contributing to creating stable procurement conditions for our military supplies."
