S. Korea, NATO to hold policy consultation meeting in Seoul

SEOUL, July 3 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will hold their annual policy consultation meeting in Seoul this week to discuss closer cooperation in efforts to fight terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the foreign ministry said Monday.

Director-General for International Organizations Bureau Lee Jang-keun and Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Alejandro Alvargonzalez will represent South Korea and NATO respectively in the meeting slated for Tuesday.

In the first South Korea-NATO meeting since the launch of the new administration in Seoul in May, the two sides will discuss ways to bolster cooperation on a range of issues, including anti-terrorism, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as the fight against terrorism in cyberspace, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Also on the agenda is strengthening military collaboration through pushing up interoperability between the forces of the two sides, according to the ministry.

"NATO is our global partner with which we share key values like peace, democracy and human rights. The government will step up joint efforts with NATO to prepare against common security threats," the ministry said.

Seoul joined hands with the Atlantic alliance as a global partner in 2006 and has annually held a policy consultation meeting with it since 2008.

Currently eight non-Atlantic countries are the NATO's "partners across the globe," including Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Iraq.

pbr@yna.co.kr
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