First South Korean troops on way to UAE

130 soldiers on their way, with unit to be based in Al Ain named Akh, after Arabic word for brother.

Soldiers shout during a photo call as they attend a send-off event for them at a military unit in Gwangju, southeast of Seoul.

BEIJING // The deployment of South Korean troops to the UAE was presented as "a new model of military cooperation" by South Korea's president yesterday, at a ceremony marking the contingent's departure to the Emirates.

The special forces troops are due to leave South Korea today, representing the start of a two-year commitment from Seoul to train and conduct joint exercises with UAE forces. The unit, named Akh, after the Arabic word for brother, will be based in Al Ain.

The South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, in a statement read on his behalf at the ceremony by the defence minister, Kim Kwan-jin, said sending the troops would "significantly help solidify our energy security and expand trade in the Middle East".

The UAE is South Korea's second-largest oil provider in the Middle East, being responsible for 14 per cent of its supplies, while the Emirates rank second in the Middle East as an importer of South Korean goods.

In the statement quoted by the government-affiliated Yonhap news agency, Mr Lee said: "For the Republic of Korea, this dispatch is a new model of military cooperation aimed at sharing our training experience with the United Arab Emirates in a non-conflict region," using his country's official name.

An advance party of 10 military members left last month ahead of the main group of the deployment, which will be 130-strong. Families of the troops and the South Korean chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Han Min-koo, were among the 600 people at yesterday's ceremony.

South Korea already has a global footprint when it comes to the activities of its armed forces. Its UN peacekeeping contingents in Haiti and Lebanon total nearly 600 troops, while the country also has smaller numbers of UN peacekeepers in East Timor and Nepal. There is a 350-member unit of South Koreans deployed off Somalia involved with anti-piracy operations.

There has previously been a sizeable presence of South Koreans in Iraq, while last year South Korea returned to Afghanistan when it sent 320 troops to the Parwan province north of Kabul to protect South Korean civilian engineers and police assisting with reconstruction. An earlier deployment in Afghanistan lasted from 2003 to 2007.

In the UAE, the troops are being dispatched in response to a request made by the UAE after the selection in December 2009 of a South Korean-led consortium to build four nuclear power plants in Abu Dhabi emirate.

The troops will not be tasked with protecting the South Korean workers helping to construct these facilities, Yonhap said. They will however be available to help UAE-based South Koreans in the event of an emergency.

South Korea is likely to continue to expand its global military activities, said Jeong-min Seo, a professor of Middle East politics at Hankuk University in Seoul.

"I am expecting us to enlarge our activities of peacekeeping in the world and sometimes, if we want a comprehensive partnership relationship, like with the UAE, we may voluntarily participate in military cooperation," he said.

"If we have a chance, definitely Korea wants to expand its partnership relations with other areas in the world."

The deployment to the UAE is believed to be the first time that South Korean troops have been sent in large numbers to a country that is not at war or recovering from recent conflict or other disturbance.

Mr Seo described it as "an exceptional case" that has attracted criticism from opposition lawmakers in the South Korean national assembly.

While some have said the troops could be at risk from terrorist attack, Mr Seo said South Korea's forces gain valuable experience from overseas deployments.

The unit in the UAE will be under the command of Colonel Choi Han-oh.

The colonel said: "As a representative of the Republic of Korea, we will contribute to upgrading the national profile of our country by thoroughly carrying out our mission."