Minister of National Defense Ahn Gyu-back speaks at the defense policy committee meeting held in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province on Tuesday. (Yonhap) South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back will attend the 23rd Asia Security Summit in Singapore from Friday to Sunday, and hold talks with defense chiefs from several countries, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.During this year’s meeting, Ahn is scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi.It will be Ahn’s first meeting with Koizumi since January when the two sides held defense ministerial talks Japan.At the upcoming talks, the two sides are expected to discuss ways to further expand exchanges between the defense authorities of South Korea and JapanOne possible agenda item is the resumption of South Korea-Japan search and rescue exercises, known as SAREX, which had been suspended for about nine years before the two sides agreed at the Yokosuka meeting to restart them.Seoul and Tokyo are reportedly in the final stages of coordinating the schedule for the drills.However, it remains unclear whether there will be progress on a bilateral Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement, or ACSA, which Japan has sought. The South Korean government has maintained a cautious stance on the proposed pact.US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is also expected to attend this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue, but a separate Seoul-Washington defense chiefs’ meeting is considered unlikely, as the two already held talks during Ahn’s visit to the US earlier this month.Ahn is also scheduled to meet delegations from the US Senate and House of Representatives, as well as the defense ministers of Australia, Norway, the Philippines and Thailand, to discuss ways to expand defense and arms industry cooperation.