South Korea’s Lee, NATO’s Rutte Discuss Closer Defense Cooperation

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung held his first telephone conversation with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on 3 July, according to the presidential office in Seoul. The two leaders agreed to deepen bilateral cooperation, with a focus on establishing a working-level consultative body that would bolster defense-industry collaboration between South Korea and the North Atlantic alliance. Lee’s outreach follows Seoul’s recent push to diversify security ties as regional tensions persist on the Korean Peninsula and in the broader Indo-Pacific. No financial commitments or timelines were disclosed, but both sides described the discussion as a step toward a more institutionalised partnership.