South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s recent visit to India from 8-11 July was landmark in providing a new impetus to India-South Korea relations. This was Moon’s first official visit to India. Essentially, he took this visit in pursuance of his new southward strategy, whereby he seeks to pursue a balanced diplomacy by strengthening his relations with
ASEAN countries, including India and South Asia. Even during his election campaign last year, Moon had said that it is time for Seoul to expand its relations beyond the traditional four powers — the US, China, Russia and Japan. Ever since assuming office, Moon has shown great interest, particularly in elevating India to the level of those four powers.
To be sure, Moon Jae-in’s visit came at a time when India-South Korea ties have matured into what is called a special strategic partnership. India described South Korea as an “indispensable partner in its Act East policy.” During the last 45 years of their diplomatic relations, both India and South Korea have succeeded in fashioning a robust, multi-dimensional partnership encompassing a wide range of interests, including nuclear disarmament, maritime security, regional economic cooperation, counter terrorism, and energy cooperation.
Both share common interests in contributing to the creation of a regional order which is open, balanced and inclusive, and free from any single country’s dominance. Since both countries depend on sea-borne trade for their economic prosperity, they share a strong commitment to ensure freedom of navigation and unimpeded commerce in the open seas. Both countries forged strategic partnership in 2010 and followed it up by signing a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA).
After the advent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, bilateral engagements received stronger impetus. His official visit to Seoul in 2015 proved to be a major turning point in the bilateral relations. Both countries upgraded the bilateral ties to a ‘special strategic partnership’ and the decided to add more content in such areas as foreign affairs, defence, trade and investment. They also agreed to hold annual summit meetings of their top-most leaders alternatively in New Delhi or Seoul or on the sidelines of multilateral events. For instance, last year, both Moon and Modi met on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting held in Germany. They also set up institutional mechanisms to pursue their strategic dialogue at different levels.
President Moon’s visit came at a time when both countries are well poised to expand their security and economic engagements. His new Southern Policy is basically driven by a strong desire to lessen Seoul’s undue dependence on traditional partners such as the US, China, Japan and Russia and to seek to pursue a balanced diplomacy by strengthening its relations with countries like India, ASEAN, and Australia.
In their joint statement titled, ‘A vision for people, Prosperity and Peace and our Future’, Moon called India “a central pillar of Republic of Korea’s (ROK) new southern policy.” Realising the importance of the synergy between India’s Act India policy and South Korea’s Southward Policy, both leaders not only agreed to add more content to their cooperation, but also decided to explore tripartite partnership for development in Third countries starting with capacity-building programme in Afghanistan. This is a novel idea which, if carried out successfully, can open up new prospects for India-Republic of Korea cooperation in many areas.
It is also important to note that India has expressed interest in handling the recent peace processes on the Korean Peninsula as a ‘stakeholder’ and South Korea, perhaps for the first time, recognised India’s “inclusive and cooperative vision for the Indo-Pacific region.” India’s interest in establishing peace in Korea and reunification is not new and dates back to the Korean War. Its role in repatriation of the prisoners of war and the Korean Armistice agreement is of great relevance in the ongoing peace process.
India has always maintained diplomatic relations with North Korea and in May this year, Minister of State for External Affairs General VK Singh made a surprise visit to North Korea. It is encouraging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined India’s interest in the Korean peace process and as and when the denuclearisation of the Peninsula starts, countries like India can extend full cooperation in the seemingly long drawn-out process.
Understanding economic engagements form the bedrock of bilateral partnership, one of the main objectives of the present visit was to reinvigorate the two-way trade and investments. For instance, both countries signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement way back in 2009, which provided enormous scope to expand bilateral trade and investment. The volume of trade rose to $20.5 billion in 2011, but declined eventually due to unstable global economic climate. In 2017, bilateral trade picked up to record $20 billion again. Ever since, both countries have taken measures to review the working of the CEPA. Both also agreed to increase bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2030. President Moon showed great interest in Modi’s ‘Make in India’ and agreed to increase Korea’s investment in India. For example, both Moon and Modi inaugurated Samsung’s world’s largest mobile phone manufacturing facility in Noida. Samsung has already invested a lot in India and provided jobs to many Indians.
The present visit gave a great opportunity to both Modi and Moon to revitalise their economic relations by preparing a road map for the future. The potential of the partnership has still not fully been tapped. The joint vision proposed by the two leaders will give a new impetus to the partnership.
This commentary originally appeared in The Pioneer.
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