Minister Ahn Gyu-baek of the Ministry of National Defense spoke by phone with Canadian Minister of National Defense David McGuinty on the afternoon of the 4th and discussed major bilateral defense issues and ways to cooperate.
The two Ministers highly assessed the bilateral naval exercise that included Korea's 3,000-ton Dosan Ahn Changho class (KSS-III) Submarine and said the drill served as an opportunity to raise interoperability by a notch and confirm the shared resolve to safeguard peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
Minister Ahn expressed deep gratitude to the Canadian Ministry of National Defense for supporting the successful conduct of the drill and said he hopes the two countries will unite as core partners across the submarine program, security and the defense industry, and industry at large.
Recalling the outcomes of the Korea-Canada foreign and defense ministers' meeting on Feb. 2, the two Ministers agreed to continue multilateral coordination on global security issues and to advance defense and defense industry cooperation.
Korea's Hanwha Ocean and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries are competing with Germany's ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) for Canada's C$60 trillion submarine replacement program (CPSP). The final selection of the contractor for this project is set to be announced at the end of this month.