As part of Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong's 2026 Asia tour amid the Middle East crisis, she met South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan in Seoul on April 30, agreeing to boost cooperation on stable diesel and energy supplies. A joint statement promised mutual notifications on disruptions, with Wong noting the Asia-Pacific's disproportionate impact.
The meeting followed Wong's recent talks with Japanese officials reaffirming Indo-Pacific cooperation and precedes planned visits to China, focusing on shared challenges from the Mideast conflict—including the Strait of Hormuz closure—which has disrupted global energy markets since late February after U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran escalated into broader war.
Wong told reporters: "The impact of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the conflict in the Middle East is being felt by people across this region disproportionately. The best way to manage this is to ensure we work together to provide each other with reliable supplies of energy and to manage the disruption."
The joint statement expressed "deep concern over the situation in the Middle East and its consequences for our region, including impacts on energy, resources and other important commodities." Both sides recommitted "to working together to strengthen energy resource security, including efforts to maintain a stable, secure and reliable supply of diesel and other liquid fuels, energy resource commodities, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) and condensate," and to "notify and consult each other on any potential disruptions as far as practicable."
Australia supplies South Korea with LNG, condensate, and critical minerals, while South Korea provides Australia with diesel and refined petroleum products. Wong emphasized that the agreement "demonstrates that Australia and Korea take this relationship seriously and that we will work closely together to navigate this global disruption." This builds on pre-meeting expectations of deeper defense and supply chain ties announced earlier in the week.
