Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul holds a telephone conversation on Jan. 22 with High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas. 

By Aisylu Akhmetzianova

Photos = Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul held talks on Jan. 22 with Kaja Kallas, the high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and vice-president of the European Commission. Minister Cho had his first telephone call with Kallas after the latter's appointment on December 1.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the same day that the two discussed Korea-EU ties, Russia-North Korea cooperation, matters involving the Korean Peninsula, and other global affairs.

 
Minister Cho asked the EU chief to bolster the strategic partnership relationship between Korea and the European Union. Kallas said that Korea is an important strategic partner of the EU and its cooperation with Korea matters. 

Both agreed that the 15-year-old strategic partnership relationship is deepening in many areas ranging from politics to the economy and security amid the closely interconnected regional security of Europe and the Indo-Pacific region.

They also vowed to work together for the joint hosting of negotiation bodies such as the second round of the Korea-EU Strategic Dialogue, high-level political talks, and the implementation of the Security and Defence Partnership between Korea and the EU that was signed last year during the first strategic talks.

The two chiefs strongly condemned the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, which supports Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, as a threat to the security of the whole world including Korea and Europe, and decided to cooperate to hamper the Moscow-Pyeongyang military alliance.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul (right) talks on Jan. 22 with Xavier Brunson, commander of the United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command, and the United States Forces Korea, at the ministry’s headquarters in Seoul’s Jongno-gu District. 

Minister Cho also met with Xavier Brunson, commander of the United Nations Command, Combined Forces Command, and the United States Forces Korea, at the ministry’s headquarters in Seoul’s Jongno-gu District, to discuss the Korea-U.S. alliance and North Korea issues, urging him to contribute to maintaining and bolstering the bilateral alliance and the allies’ ironclad joint defense posture.

Cho also asked Commander Brunson to play a role in the Korea-U.S. alliance so that the cooperation outcomes of the bilateral alliance such as the extended deterrence and the trilateral cooperation among Korea, the U.S. and Japan can continue to be implemented.

aisylu@korea.kr