Seoul: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul chaired the 10th India-South Korea Joint Commission Meeting in Seoul on Wednesday. The two leaders held talks on expanding bilateral ties, cooperation in defence, science and technology, business and trade sectors.
During the meeting, Jaishankar and Cho Tae-yul held discussions on developments in the Indo-Pacific and the convergences of India and South Korea to challenges in the region. Both sides also spoke on advancing trilateral cooperation.
In a post on X, Jaishankar stated, “Co-chaired with @FMChoTae_yul a comprehensive and productive 10th India-South Korea Joint Commission Meeting in Seoul today. Conversations covered our expanded bilateral ties, cooperation in the field of defence, science & technology, business & trade, people to people exchange and cultural cooperation. Also spoke of advancing trilateral cooperation. Exchanged views on the developments in the Indo-Pacific, our convergences to challenges in the region and regional & global issues of mutual interest.”
In his opening remarks at the 10th India-South Korea Joint Commission Meeting, Jaishankar said that the ties between the two nations have grown from “strength to strength.” Calling the two nations “important” partners for each other, he stressed that India and South Korea have witnessed steady growth in trade, investments and defence.
He said, “Last year, as you noted, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of our diplomatic ties. During our Prime Minister’s visit in 2015, our relations were elevated to a special strategic partnership.
“It is important that we live up to that. We have grown from strength to strength in the years that have passed. We have become truly important partners for each other. And our bilateral exchanges – trade, investments, defence, and S&T cooperation have all seen a steady growth,” he added.
EAM Jaishankar noted that India is interested in expanding ties with South Korea to new areas like human resource mobility, nuclear cooperation, green hydrogen supply chain resilience, critical and emerging technologies.
In his remarks, Jaishankar said, “While keeping up the momentum in the traditional areas of cooperation, we would be very much interested now in expanding it to new areas, such as critical and emerging technologies, semiconductors, green hydrogen, human resource mobility, nuclear cooperation, supply chain resilience, etc, to make our ties more contemporary.”
He further said, “We have also noted the growing convergence of our views in the international forum. Your focus on the Indo-Pacific region is a good case to point, and we both have stakes in its stability, security, and prosperity.”
Jaishankar, who is on a two-day visit to South Korea, on Tuesday, said that ties between India and South Korea has expanded in different sectors and the benefits are visible to both nations. He said that India’s partnership with South Korea is acquiring “great salience” in a “more uncertain and volatile world.”
In his address at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy on ‘Broadening horizons: India-Korea Partnership in the Indo-Pacific’, Jaishankar stressed that it is time for two nations to introspect and strategise how the two countries could be doing more by making efforts differently.
Highlighting ties between the two countries, Jaishankar said, “Its a great pleasure to speak to you today about India’s partnership with Republic of Korea, one that is acquiring great salience in a more uncertain and volatile world. Our ties have been described as a special strategic partnership since 2015. This is not just a phrase but an assessment to which we have tried to live up to since then. In different domains, cooperation has expanded and benefits are visible. Yet, this is also a time to introspect and strategise how we could be doing more by doing differently.”
The external affairs minister recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to South Korea in 2015 and 2019. Terming trade as metric of judgement of ties between two nations, Jaishankar stressed that the bilateral trade has touched roughly around USD 25 billion.
“The frequency and intensity of contacts is one way of judging any relationship. In recent years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Yoon have met twice as I did with my previous counterpart. Many of you will be aware that Prime Minister Modi has infact been to Republic of Korea himself twice, once in 2015 and once in 2019,” Jaishankar said.
“Trade is another metric of judgement and this today between us is roughly around USD 25 billion plus minus level. Companies of both countries have made significant investments in the other. We note that your economic cooperation in development fund has committed to two significant infrastructure projects in India. The sovereign wealth fund KIC has opened its office in our country. Our defence cooperation recorded a success in the joint efforts of Hanwha and Larsen and Toubro and we each have a community in other countries about 15000 in our case and some what less in yours,” he said. (ANI)
(With inputs from ANI)
