Seoul, May 8 (IANS): South Korean Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup met with a group of ambassadors from Central and South America on Monday to discuss defence and arms industry cooperation, his Ministry said.

Lee met the envoys from 16 countries, including Argentina, Brazil and Chile, during a gathering of the Group of Latin America and the Caribbean, a UN regional group, at a hotel in central Seoul, according to the Ministry.

In the meeting, Lee described Central and South America as a major region for cooperation, and vowed to come up with more measures for defence cooperation, such as creating institutional groundwork for defence cooperation and regular high-level exchange between defence officials, it said as quoted by Yonhap news agency report.

The envoys welcomed Seoul's efforts for defence cooperation with their countries, according to the Ministry.

Lee also said that Seoul's efforts for the denuclearisation of North Korea and measures to deter its provocations, and requested support from the countries, it added.

The Minister and the envoys also discussed common security threats faced by South Korea and Central and South America in the Indo-Pacific region, such as climate change, cyber threats and terrorism.