1. The First Republic of Korea-United Arab Emirates High-level Consultation on Nuclear Cooperation took place in Seoul on November 16, with Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Lee Tae-ho and UAE Minister of Energy and Industry Suhail Al-Mazrouei leading their respective delegations.

※ The meeting was attended by about 50 people, including ROK officials from the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, nuclear energy-related departments of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, and other related organizations, as well as UAE delegates from the Ministry of Energy and Industry, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR), and Barakah One Company.

2. The two sides shared the view that cooperation in the Barakah nuclear power plant project played a key role in developing the ROK-UAE relations into a special strategic partnership, and agreed on the need to expand and deepen their cooperation not only in the construction of nuclear power plants, but also in other nuclear energy-related areas.

o They also spoke highly of the launch of the ROK-UAE High-Level Consultation on Nuclear Cooperation as an intergovernmental communication channel for strategic nuclear cooperation.

3. In the meeting, the two sides shared the progress in the Barakah nuclear power plant project, and agreed to continue close consultations to start the operation of the Barakah nuclear power plant in a smooth manner.

o They also reaffirmed the need to step up cooperation to jointly enter the nuclear power plant market in third countries, and agreed to continue to consult on concrete ways to do so.

4. The two sides agreed to seek and push forward concrete cooperation projects between academia and research institutes to facilitate cooperation in nuclear energy R&D, and especially agreed to explore the possibility of cooperation to build an R&D center in the UAE.

o In addition, the two sides agreed to actively join the international community’s efforts to strengthen nuclear security, and to further increase cooperation in R&D for regulations and human resource development in order to strengthen the two countries’ nuclear safety regulations.

5. The two sides agreed to create four working groups under the umbrella of the High-Level Consultation to produce substantive results through in-depth consultations in the aforementioned areas, and to continue cooperation.

6. They agreed to hold the next meeting in the UAE in 2019, and to report the progress in cooperation in the next meeting, working to advance their cooperation through follow-up discussions within each working group.

* unofficial translation