South Korean president visits UAE to seek arms sales
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol received an honor guard welcome Sunday on a trip to the United Arab Emirates as he hopes to expand its military sales here.
Yoon’s visit is occurring as South Korea makes billion-dollar business deals, and South Korea sends special forces troops to the UAE. drew criticism under his liberal predecessor. However, the conservative leader seems to want to increase those military connections, even though tensions with Iran are already high. Tehran seize a South Korean oil tanker In 2021.
“I think that the situation in the Middle East is changing very rapidly when it comes to geopolitics,” said June Park, a fellow with the International Strategy Forum at Schmidt Futures. “So Korea wants to make sure some of the strategic partnerships and the components … with the UAE.”
Yoon arrived in Abu Dhabi at Qasr Al Watan palace on Sunday. He was warmly greeted by Emirati leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who took office in May After serving as the de facto ruler of the country for many years.
Yoon and Kim Keon Hee were welcomed by an honor guard made up of Emiratis dressed in traditional attire. They danced with their model Lee-Enfield rifles, alongside soldiers on camelback and horses. A military band performed the Emirati and South Korean national anthems inside.
South Korea, which is energy-hungry and depends on the Emirates to supply just 10% of its crude oils, has made deals that are far more than oil with the Emirates. Seoul also has close ties with Abu Dhabi through a series deal. South Korea’s trade with the UAE is into the billions of dollars worth of cars, material and other goods.
Officials described Yoon’s visit before Yoon’s visit as a way to strengthen the already strong ties between the two countries.
“This visit will strengthen strategic cooperation with our brother country UAE in the four core cooperative sectors of nuclear power, energy, investment and defense,” said Kim Sung-han, director of national security in Yoon’s government.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that a presidential official also stated that an arms deal was being planned.
“The atmosphere is extremely ripe for security or military cooperation between South Korea and the UAE involving the arms industry,” the official said, according to Yonhap.
Already, South Korea reached a $3.5 billion deal with the UAE in 2022 to sell the M-SAMThe, an advanced air defense system that intercepts missiles at low altitudes (less than 40 km or 25 miles), was developed by the United States Air Force. Officials in Emirati have become more concerned about their airspace since the 9/11 attacks. being targeted in long-range drone attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
While U.S. forces fired Patriot missiles for the first time in combat since the 2003 Iraq invasion to defend Abu Dhabi The Emiratis were defending their reliance upon American military support since the attacks. America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
But South Korea’s biggest project remains the Barakah nuclear power plant, Seoul’s first attempt to build atomic reactors abroad. The $20 billion facility, which ultimately will have four reactors, is in the UAE’s western deserts near the Saudi border and one day will account for nearly a quarter of all of the Emirates’ power needs.
It’s also key to the UAE’s plans to go carbon neutral by 2050, a pledge that takes on special importance as it prepares to host the United Nations COP28 climate negotiations beginning in November in Dubai.
Yoon will likely assure the Emiratis, that South Korea is interested in lucrative maintenance contracts, just like his predecessor, President Moon Jae In. had said Seoul wanted to move away from nuclear energy.
“The energy policy took on a 180 degree shift” after the election, said Park, the analyst. “So Korea is now for nuclear and I guess that the Yoon administration wants to make sure to the Emiratis that there is no concern regarding policy shifts or anything like that.”
Also, there are the nuclear tensions that exist with North Korea. Yoon, a former top prosecutor, became president in May on a promise to take a harder line on Pyongyang. Up to recent years, hundreds of North Korean laborers were believed to be working in the UAE and elsewhere in the Gulf Arab statesAs Pyongyang seeks to avoid mounting sanctions on its nuclear program, it offers a cash flow to the country.
Their numbers have dropped dramatically since countries stopped renewing visas due to a crackdown. A U.N. expert reported recently that high-end equipment bought in UAE could end up in North Korea. Another report mentioned a North Korean citizen living in Dubai who obtained foreign currency via an online app, lying about his nationality.
The U.N. stated that it had information regarding North Korean diplomats in Iran, as recent as 2021. These diplomats were flying on Dubai-based long haul carrier Emirates to smuggle gold.
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Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.