The vice defense ministers of South Korea and Canada discussed additional opportunities for bilateral defense and arms industry cooperation.

According to Seoul’s defense ministry on Thursday, Vice Defense Minister Lee Doo-hee met with Canadian Deputy Defence Minister Stefanie Beck at the Canadian Department of National Defence on Wednesday.

During the meeting, the two sides agreed to draft plans for a bilateral defense industry consultative body to follow up on the Security and Defense Cooperation Partnership agreed upon at last month’s South Korea–Canada summit.

Mentioning that a South Korean firm had been shortlisted as one of the final two candidates in Canada’s submarine procurement project, Lee stressed that the deal marks a significant step toward strengthening the two countries’ defense partnership.

South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean was shortlisted alongside a German firm for the Canadian submarine project, estimated to be worth up to 60 trillion won, or about 44 billion U.S. dollars.

The two vice ministers agreed that their discussion would continue through meetings of the two nations’ foreign and defense ministers and other high-level consultations.