Top industry officials of Korea and Qatar agreed Monday to maintain strong cooperation on energy supplies amid geopolitical tensions and expand their ties into a wide range of energy and shipbuilding sectors, Seoul’s industry ministry said.

Korea’s Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun and Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi met in Seoul and agreed to continue to work closely on ensuring stable supplies of energy amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and elsewhere, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

Qatar is Korea’s No. 2 liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier, accounting for 19.5 percent of Seoul’s total LNG imports.

The two sides also discussed ways of deepening the countries’ relations in plant and LNG carrier fields, and vowed to expand ties into a wide range of sectors, such as renewable energy resources and hydrogen.

Ahn explained Korea’s Carbon-Free Energy initiative and sought ways for cooperation with Qatar on the matter, the ministry said.

President Yoon Suk Yeol proposed the initiative during his keynote speech at the U.N. General Assembly last year, calling for efforts to leverage carbon-free energy resources to achieve carbon neutrality. (Yonhap)