NATO's "four Asian countries, including South Korea, attend NATO Defense Ministers' Meeting for the first time"

Four Indo-Pacific countries, including South Korea, will attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and NATO Defense Ministers' Meeting in the middle of this month for the first time.

"Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea will attend the NATO Defense Ministers' Meeting for the first time from the 17th," new NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutter said at an inaugural press conference held at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on the 1st local time.

NATO's Indo-Pacific partners, including South Korea, have already been invited to the NATO summit and foreign ministers' meeting for three consecutive years.

However, as the defense ministers' meeting, where discussions and decisions on NATO's military policy are made, practical cooperation on defense industries is expected to be discussed.