NATO Leaders Adopt 'Defense Industry Capability Expansion Declaration' First Mentioning Cooperation with Han

Need to Expand Capabilities Highlighted Due to Ukraine War
Including Cooperation with Partner Countries Like Korea

The 32 member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) agreed on the 10th (local time) to accelerate the expansion of defense industry capabilities and production, while also officially expressing their willingness to cooperate with partner countries such as South Korea for the first time.

On the same day, NATO leaders adopted the "NATO Industrial Capacity Expansion Pledge" during the first day of the summit's plenary session held in Washington, DC, USA.

The declaration stated that defense capabilities "play a crucial role in enhancing readiness and interoperability," and that "sustained and increased defense spending and assured (material) orders, combined with long-term capacity investments, will enable the industry to support the alliance's response to increasingly unpredictable and hostile security environment challenges."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Specifically, it included ▲ strengthening the defense industry across NATO ▲ adopting a systematic approach to defense industry development ▲ rapid delivery of core capabilities ▲ expanding large-scale multinational military procurement ▲ accelerating the adoption of new technologies ▲ strengthening cooperation with Ukraine ▲ enhancing cooperation with NATO partner countries ▲ reinforcing NATO standards and interoperability ▲ protecting critical defense supply chains.

In particular, NATO member leaders also agreed on the pursuit of strengthening defense industry cooperation through intensive dialogue with partner countries such as South Korea, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

This declaration concretizes the "Defense Production Action Plan" related to the expansion of joint procurement agreed upon at last year's NATO summit held in Vilnius, Lithuania. At that time, partner countries such as South Korea were not specifically mentioned.

This declaration is interpreted as a response to the emergence of the need to foster defense and defense industry capabilities and the limitations of production capacities of the United States and European member countries as major NATO issues following the Ukraine war.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, also mentioned South Korea's "advanced defense industry" when asked about the prospects for cooperation between South Korea and NATO on the same day, stating, "We are exploring how to cooperate more closely, including expanding defense industry cooperation (with South Korea)."