South Korean Defense Minister Kang Shin-chul on Thursday met with his Singaporean and Vietnamese counterparts to discuss ways to expand defense cooperation with the two countries, his ministry said. Kang met with Singapore's Defense Minister Chan Chun Sing on the sidelines of an extended defense ministers' meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the Philippines, according to the ministry. During the talks, the two sides positively assessed their efforts to expand cooperation in the defense sector after the two countries forged a strategic partnership during summit talks between their leaders in November last year. The ministers also agreed to expand cooperation in various areas, including personnel exchanges, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI). Kang also met separately with Vietnamese Defense Minister Phan Van Giang, with the two sides agreeing to swiftly hold their annual senior-level defense talks in a bid to accelerate cooperation in the defense sector. They also vowed to push for a revision to a bilateral memorandum of understanding on defense coop