An inter-ministerial meeting with heads of South Korean diplomatic missions in partner countries of Seoul's defense industrial cooperation, including the embattled Ambassador to Australia Lee Jong-sup, is being held at the foreign ministry on Thursday.

According to the ministry, the state of the global defense industry market, domestic exports, and policy tasks are expected to be discussed at the meeting. This is the first gathering of the ambassadors from Australia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates(UAE), Indonesia, Qatar and Poland.

Lee, the former defense minister, kept mum amid an ongoing controversy over his ambassadorship, which came despite a pending investigation into his alleged interference in a probe after the death of a Marine during a search and rescue operation last year.

Some have alleged that the latest meeting was arranged to have the ambassador return home on March 21, just eleven days after taking office, in a bid to calm the controversy ahead of the April 10 general elections.