국립외교원

‘It’s time for Korea and India to pursue really strategic cooperation’

Joon-gyu Lee
President, Forum of India in Korea(Former Ambassador to India, Japan)

Korea and India celebrated the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations last year.  Frequency and intensity of contacts between the two countries have developed a lot during that 50 years of period. Two countries have successfully developed friendly and ‘not bad at all’ relations. The relationship have reached the level of ‘Special Strategic partnership’ which was agreed in May 2015 during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Korea. But, in my opinion, actual relationship between the two countries is not that much strategic, not exploiting the potential to the maximum, either. A clear example is that the negotiation for upgrading the existing CEPA(Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement), which is very crucial for accelerating the development of relations between the two countries, have not been concluded for more than 10 years.
Recent changes in the international situation, especially in the Ino-Pacific region represented by the confrontation between the United States and China following China’s assertive territorial claims in the South China Sea, it’s Belt and Road Initiative and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, are increasing the possibility that the relationship between Korea and India will develop to a more strategic level. India has already maintained a very close relationship with Japan for a long time, and is in dialogue with the United States, Japan, and Australia through the Quad, but it can gain a lot additionally through strengthening cooperation with Korea. Since both countries have China as their neighbor, it would be of great help if they could have open minded discussions about China.
Korea is recently strengthening the ROK-US alliance and is very active in trilateral cooperation, as seen at the Camp David Korea-U.S.-Japan trilateral summit last August. This is a clear flag-waving attempt to stand on the American side and the liberal democracy camp in the confrontation between the United States and China, completely different from the previous administration, which took an ambiguous stance between the United States and China. There is criticism within South Korea that President Yoon's actions could draw China and Russia closer to North Korea, making it difficult to obtain cooperation from the two countries in managing the situation on the Korean Peninsula, including the North Korean nuclear issue. Korea's strengthening of relations with India can be expected to have the effect of alleviating these concerns to some extent.  
As the Chinese economy becomes more sluggish and Korea-China relations become increasingly worse than before, many Korean companies operating in China are looking for an alternative to China. It is natural that the emerging India is considered a priority. The Korean government needs to create a political environment favorable to Korean companies entering India.
I believe that the failure of the relationship between the two countries to develop into actual strategic cooperation is largely due to Korea's attitude rather than India's. This is because while Korea has talked about a strategic relationship in words, in reality it has had a strong tendency to approach India only from the perspective of economic interests, seeing it as a new market with huge potential. However, it is now time for Korea to change this perspective. This is because it has become clear that it is impossible to achieve only economic benefits without strategic and political cooperation with India. Moreover, in the midst of the US-China strategic confrontation, India's strategic value has grown dramatically. A clear example is that Prime Minister Modi, who visited the United States last June, received a warm reception comparable to that of former Prime Minister Churchill. India is also playing a leading role in BRICS and successfully hosted the G-20 summit in Delhi last September. India’s visibility in the world scene will grow further very fast. 
There are signs that Korea and India are changing their views on each other and are moving toward strategic cooperation. As you are aware, Foreign Minister Cho and External Affairs Minister Jaishankar held the 10th Korea-India Joint Commision meeting in Seoul early this month. This was the first JCM in 6 years between the two countries. Two ministers had comprehensive talks to develop bilateral cooperation in various ways. Earlier, Foreign Minister Park Jin made an official visit to India on April 7-8. This was the first visit by a Korean foreign minister to India in five years. The two countries held a Foreign Policy and Security Dialogue between Vice Ministers of Foreign Affairs in January of this year and a National Security Office Strategic Dialogue in August. They are taking actions according to the action plans as a ‘special strategic partner’ agreed upon by the two countries.
Prime Minister Modi and President Yoon Seok-yeol held a summit on the occasion of the G-7 Summit in Hiroshima last May, and also held a summit in Dehli on the occasion of the G-20 Summit  in early September. Their meeting time at the last summit was not long but discussions were very comprehensive and productive. It may be regarded as a start of real strategic cooperation. In order to keep this momentum moving, there is a need to promote a bilateral visit of a top leader as soon as possible. 
If Korea and India engage in full-scale strategic cooperation, they could bring many benefits to both sides. First of all, in the midst of the US-China competition, cooperation between the two countries can be expected to have the effect of expanding each other's activity space to some extent. If the two countries begin to view each other from a strategic perspective, they will be able to attempt various types of cooperation in terms of security as well. Additionally, they can provide strength to each other in various multilateral international arenas. In the current trend where security aspects are being highlighted in the economy, there is great potential for mutual economic win-win between the two countries. The scope of cooperation between the two countries can be expanded in fields such as joint military exercise and training, defense industry, space, aviation industry, shipbuilding and nuclear energy. 
We can expect the development of Korea-India-US trilateral cooperation for the stability and security in the Indo-Pacific.  
The litmus test to see whether Korea and India are willing to become true strategic partners is the sluggish CEPA revision negotiation. Rather than pushing and pulling from a microscopic perspective, the two countries should take a more macroscopic and strategic perspective and quickly conclude negotiations for future-oriented cooperation. The two countries need to make efforts to be as considerate of each other's position on each other's major agendas as possible. These include India's push for permanent membership of the Security Council in the United Nations, the northern border issue, and South Korea's North Korean nuclear issue. 
Our two countries are having very important general elections in April. I hope that our top leaders get together again soon with satisfactory elections results and discuss sincerely the ways to strengthen our bilateral relationship.
Thank you. //