Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul (left) on April 2 exchanges a handshake with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

By Aisylu Akhmetzianova

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has requested defense cooperation with Korea in talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul.

In their meeting on April 2 at NATO headquarters in Brussels, the European official said he hopes Korea pursues cooperation with individual NATO member countries as well as defense industry cooperation with the organization as a whole, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a news release.

In response, Minister Cho proposed to expand cooperation starting with practical measures through working-level negotiations.

The meeting came prior to Minister Cho's attendance at NATO's foreign ministers' meeting that day. For the fourth straight year, the organization invited the IP4 -- NATO's four Indo-Pacific partners Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand -- to the talks.

At the meeting, Secretary General Rutte stressed the importance of cooperation with the IP4 and praised Seoul’s sharing of information such as a briefing last year on military cooperation between Russia and North Korea.

Minister Cho asked for NATO's interest in the early launch of a bilateral channel for information sharing pushed for since last year.

"Ongoing military cooperation between Russia and North Korea despite negotiations underway to end the war in Ukraine should be stopped immediately," he added. "The North should get no compensation for its wrong behavior in the process of ending the war."

"After sending aid worth USD 400 million last year for the speedy recovery of peace in Ukraine and its reconstruction, the plan from this year is USD 2 billion in mid- to long-term assistance."

aisylu@korea.kr