South Korea is looking to boost its arms sales to the Middle East.
Supporting those efforts, Seoul's defense chief has been attending an international exhibition and conference in the UAE to rub shoulders with his counterparts from around the world.
Kan Hyeong-woo reports.

The 2019 International Defense Exhibition and Conference opened in Abu Dhabi on February 17, local time,... with some 15-hundred defense firms from around 70 countries taking part in the biennial event. The exhibition also brings together top military officials from the Middle East region.

This year, South Korea's Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo went to the exhibition to support the nation's defense firms' efforts to build networks with not only the host nation United Arab Emirates, but also its neighboring countries.

"When it comes to the development of weapons systems, no matter how good they are,... they cannot be exported unless there is cooperation among countries. That's why the South Korean government is fully backing our firms' efforts to export arms to the region."

On the sidelines of the event,... Minister Jeong sat down with his UAE counterpart, ( ) Mohammed Ahmed Al-Bowardi and discussed ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation by improving exchanges in terms of military personnel, training and cyber security.

Minister Jeong also held separate meetings with delegation leaders of Middle East countries including Oman and Egypt to discuss bilateral arms industry cooperation.

Seoul's defense chief also met with his counterpart from Greece ( ) Evangelos Apostolakis... and the two sides agreed to put more efforts to strengthen their military exchanges by pledging to work towards signing an arms industry's Memorandum of Understanding in the near future.

Around 30 South Korean defense firms,... including Hanwha Defense, Korea Aerospace Industries,.. and LIG Nex1,... are participating in this year's event, slated to continue until February 21, local time.
Kan Hyeong-woo, Arirang News