Yoon to travel to U.S. next week for NATO summit, Indo-Pacific Command visit

By Kim Eun-jung

SEOUL, July 5 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk Yeol will travel to the United States next week to attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Washington and visit the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii, his office said Friday.

Yoon will visit Washington from Wednesday to Thursday to meet with NATO leaders and discuss the war in Ukraine and cooperation between the transatlantic security alliance and the Indo-Pacific region, Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo said.

Ahead of the summit, Yoon will stop in Hawaii on Monday and Tuesday to visit the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to receive a security briefing in the region.

Yoon will hold a series of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the NATO summit to discuss ways to expand security cooperation in response to deepening military ties between Russia and North Korea.

"We will send a strong message regarding the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, and discuss ways to enhance cooperation among NATO allies and Indo-Pacific partners," Kim said in a briefing.

South Korea was invited to the NATO summit for the third consecutive year as one of the non-NATO partners in the Indo-Pacific region, which include Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Yoon attended two previous NATO summits held in Spain in 2022 and Lithuania in 2023.

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