At 10:00 AM on Thursday, October 17, 2024, the Asan Institute for Policy Studies (Chairman Yoon Young-Kwan) held the ASAN-CSDS Bridging Allies Forum at the Asan Institute’s auditorium. This forum is co-hosted by the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Under the theme of “ROK-NATO Relations: Towards Practical Cooperation”, the forum featured keynote speakers including Choi Kang, President of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies; Maria Castillo Fernandez, Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Korea; Victor Cha, President of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); and Carmen Romero, Director of Security Policy, Political Affairs and Security Policy Division at NATO. The forum was moderated by Luis Simon, Director of the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy at VUB.

In the forum, speakers explored and proposed ways to advance collaboration between South Korea and NATO. The speakers had an interactive Q&A session with audience on various topics, including South Korea and NATO’s response to the Ukraine War, Cooperation between South Korea and countries in the Indo-Pacific, and the weaponization in non-traditional security field.