Korea has officially become a partner country of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Science and Technology Organization, marking a significant step toward enhancing collaboration with the Western military alliance, the defense ministry announced.
Under this partnership, the ministry added that Korea will participate in joint research and development activities with other NATO members and contribute to planning projects under the alliance’s Science and Technology Committee.
The science and technology group serves as a platform for cooperation in advanced defense technologies among its members. With its entry, Korea becomes the organization's third partner country after Japan and Australia.
"Korea's entry into the partnership lays the groundwork for multilateral defense science and technology cooperation with Europe for the first time and marks a milestone in development in Korea-NATO cooperation", it said in a release.
Korea is not a member of NATO but is one of the alliance's four partners in the Indo-Pacific region, alongside Australia, Japan and New Zealand. (Yonhap)