SINGAPORE: Singapore and South Korea signed two memorandums of understanding on Friday (Jun 10), including an enhanced agreement on defence cooperation.

South Korea’s Minister of National Defense Lee Jong-sup called on Singapore’s Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen at the Shangri-La Hotel on Friday evening, during which they “reaffirmed the warm and growing bilateral defence relations” between both countries.

Mr Lee is in Singapore for an official visit, as well as to attend the 19th Shangri-La Dialogue, which also started on Friday. He will speak on Sunday at a plenary session titled Common Challenges for Asia-Pacific and European Defence.

The defence ministers exchanged views on regional security developments and discussed ways to enhance bilateral and multilateral cooperation such as in chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives (CBRNE) defence and in the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM)-Plus, the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) said in a news release.

“This was underscored by the signing of an Enhanced Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on defence cooperation,” it added.

The memorandum was first signed in December 2009 by then defence ministers of both countries Teo Chee Hean and Kim Tae-young. It served to formalise existing defence cooperation and provided a framework to broaden it.

“The enhanced MOU furthers cooperation between both defence establishments to institutionalise defence dialogues and cooperation in maritime security, CBRNE, cybersecurity, military museum development and multilateral frameworks such as the ADMM-Plus,” MINDEF said.