Security Threat Driving Countries Towards Indo-Pacific Strategy, Says South Korean Diplomat

Deputy Chief of Mission of the Embassy of South Korea in India Sang-Woo Lim said both India and his country need to enhance maritime security and have closer cooperation on geoeconomics

New Delhi: South Korea Wednesday said countries are increasingly coming out with their own Indo-Pacific policies because of rising “security threat” in the region with challenges arising in the immediate neighbourhood. Seoul, which came up with its own Indo-Pacific strategy in December 2022, has said that while there are several complementarities their policy has with India’s, there still exists a number of gaps, according to Sang-Woo Lim, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of South Korea in India.

“Our Indo-Pacific strategy is inclusive. We do not target or exclude a certain nation. We have an open invitation to all nations who share our vision,” Lim said Wednesday in his lecture on the topic – Decoding Korea’s Indo-Pacific Strategy – organised by the Institute of Chinese Studies (ICS), adding that his country’s Indo-Pacific Strategy was derived by referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in June 2018.

This year marks the 50^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between India and South Korea.

“We (India and South Korea) are natural partners… But I do think there is a gap between what we think the potential is for us and the actual reality now. There is still a lot of room to cooperate. One of those areas is maritime security…We send our navy regularly to the Indian Ocean region, especially at the Gulf of Aden, where we have our naval ship, a destroyer group coming regularly to participate in … So, I think if India and Korea can get together there is a lot more India and Korea can do,” said the South Korean diplomat.

He said India and South Korea can take their strategic partnership forward by jointly going for a semiconductor partnership, similar to what India is doing with the US and Japan. He also said India, South Korea and Japan can together form a kind of multilateral grouping on similar lines as the US-South Korea-Japan that have been there for over three decades.

Security imperatives have compelled countries to come up with their own Indo-Pacific policies, Lim said, adding that for his country threats from North Korean missile tests have become a “grave and serious threat”. He said such actions not only pose a security threat to South Korea but also to countries beyond.

‘Korea Wants Healthy Relations With China’

According to the South Korean diplomat, Seoul seeks a “healthy” relationship with Beijing. He also said that South Korea is watching the “national trend” of increasing geopolitical and geoeconomic competition between the US and China.

“We hope they will have a healthy competition and not derail the efforts… And for Korea, we have a strong bond with the US. At the same time with China too we have a really important relationship. China is the number one trade partner like most nations. We want a healthy relationship with China based on mutual respect. So Korea will do what we can to make the Indo-Pacific region a better place to live,” said Lim.

Lim also stressed the fact that South Korea’s Indo-Pacific Policy is not a “reactive policy or a strategy to a certain nation.”

“It’s a pronouncement of our proactive will, our ambitious agenda to take on a bigger role and responsibility in regions beyond the Korean Peninsula. Of course, there will be a lot of elements that concern China as we implement our strategy and our policy. But we have stated clearly in our strategy that this is an inclusive strategy and China, we believe, is a very important partner to work together if we were to realise this vision of promoting a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific strategy,” he added.