During a visit to the South Korean capital on Thursday, German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck expressed his thanks for the country's joint stance in support of Ukraine in its fight against the ongoing Russian invasion.
Habeck praised South Korea as a partner that shares Germany's values and has "clearly taken the side of freedom and liberal democracies, has essentially always accepted the sanctions and will continue to do so in the future."
Although South Korea has not directly supplied weapons to Ukraine, Habeck credited the country for agreeing to sell such weapons as part of so-called ring swaps in which "Korea supplies weapons to countries that are in turn willing to provide weapons to Ukraine."
"I would like to thank you very, very much for this," Habeck added.
Habeck, who also serves as Germany's economy minister, arrived in South Korea on Wednesday for the first leg of a multi-day diplomatic trip through East Asia.
He is being accompanied on the trip by German business executives as well as lawmakers from Germany's parliament.
Habeck and his delegation are scheduled to continue on to China on Friday.
