Date: Mar 24, 2022
Middle Power Security Ambitions: Prospects for South Korea’s engagement with India and ASEAN in the Indo-Pacific

This event will start at 6:00 p.m. IST. Link to the broadcast will be made available here.


With U.S.-China geostrategic competition heating up, South Korea, ASEAN and India can draw on their middle power status to bolster regional security and economic cooperation to protect their interests from any potential superpower fallout. Given the regional uncertainty in the Indo-Pacific for the Chinese territorial expansionist policies and concerns for the U.S.’ long term commitment to Asia; as well as the limitations of existing multilateral institutions and bilateral partnerships, the time seems opportune for stronger cooperation and alignment between India, South Korea and ASEAN which could boost regional stability and provide strategic benefits for all three. The pandemic has exposed the fault lines of the multilateral bodies, therefore a proliferation or an increase in such minilateral and plurilateral initiatives is being seen. It is time for the rising and middle powers of the region to start pulling their weight to ensure a stable, rules-based global order.