Changing the status quo: Establishing a strategic connect in India - South Korean ties
Changing the Status Quo: Establishing a Strategic Connect in India - South Korean ties
WRITTEN BY ABHISHEK SHARMA
4 July 2024
India and South Korea have enjoyed stable relations since establishing diplomatic ties in 1973, which was upgraded to a Special Strategic Partnership in 2015. Yet, the partnership’s full potential remains untapped. With South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol planning to visit India this year to hopefully complete discussions on upgrading their Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, the two expect to forge a stronger strategic connection by expanding cooperation to encompass critical areas such as technology and defence.
Adding technology to the agenda
During his first visit to India for the G20 summit in 2023, which coincided with the 50 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, President Yoon and Prime Minister Modi discussed ways to enhance bilateral relations. In their meeting, new items were added to the agenda for the first time, including topics such as high technology, IT hardware manufacturing, semiconductors, electric vehicles (EVs), battery technology, and defence.
Technological cooperation is vital given the Modi government’s emphasis on establishing strategic industries related to technology and green transition. India needs to invest in large-scale manufacturing to generate employment and achieve high economic growth, particularly when the window of opportunity to attract major global companies looking to de-risk or diversify is short. In this context, South Korea is a critical partner, especially as India aims to become a manufacturing hub in the Indo-Pacific region. Therefore, one of the key goals of the Indian External Affairs Minister’s visit to Seoul in March 2024, was to present India to South Korea as a new destination for its industries through near-shoring and friend-shoring. He highlighted the importance of “stability and predictability of the international economy,” “trusted vendors and trusted geographies”, ‘and further emphasised India’s effort in “creating redundant, reliable and resilient supply chains”.
As both countries explore new areas of opportunities beyond the traditional emphasis on trade and commerce, emerging technologies and defence have particularly captured the attention of both governments.
South Korea is the thirteenth largest investor in India, with an investment of USD 5.3 billion from April 2000 to December 2023. Key sectors of investments include electronics, automobiles, and metallurgy. South Korean companies have also invested in sectors like EVs, batteries, electronics, and semiconductors in India. In 2023, major companies like Samsung and Simmtech announced their investments in the IT hardware and semiconductor ecosystem. One successful story of India's Production Linked Incentive (PLI) involves Apple. Starting in the Fiscal year 2025, Apple doubled its exports from India in April, achieving revenue of USD 1.1 billion compared to USD 580 million a year ago, and India is expected to share 26 per cent of Apple’s production by 2026.
To fortify technology cooperation between the two, India needs to address several challenges such as an unskilled workforce, market access, export restrictions, intellectual property laws, R&D budget, logistic costs, and ease of doing business. These obstacles make it difficult for Korean companies to venture into the Indian market and make it a manufacturing base. However, given South Korea’s decreasing population and increasing demand for a skilled-based workforce, India can provide the opportunity for South Korean conglomerates looking to invest in the next phase of technological innovation. This includes areas such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum computing, and green technology.
Fostering maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific
India and South Korea's defence relations have also progressed in recent years across the land, air, and maritime domains. This has happened as both parties intend to forge stronger cooperation in defence co-production and manufacturing. There are mutually beneficial areas in defence co-production, particularly for the Indian Navy and Army, as they are looking to shift away from their dependence on Russia following the Ukraine war. South Korea can benefit from India’s liberalised defence manufacturing initiatives and partner with local defence manufacturers through joint ventures, technology transfer, and exporting the products to other emerging markets as well as domestically.
For instance, the recent visit of General Lee Youngsu, Chief of Staff of the Korean Air Force, to India included a discussion on ‘issues of mutual interest’ and prospective areas of cooperation with his Indian counterpart, marking an important exchange. This visit reciprocated the Indian Air Force Chief’s visit to South Korea in 2021. In addition, General Lee also met the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s Chairman and Defence Secretary to discuss Research and Development (R&D) cooperation and collaboration. Similarly, in November 2023, the Indian Army chief met with General Park An-su, Chief of Staff, ROK Army in Seoul, to ‘exchange views on the regional security situation’ and ways to contribute to ‘strengthening bilateral defence cooperation’. In June 2024, an Indian Army delegation was in South Korea to discuss cooperation in the land domain, and next month, another delegation from India’s National Defence College visited South Korea to ‘exchange views’. All these military exchanges are symbolic of strengthening defence ties between the two countries, which is critical for fostering trust and understanding between the armed forces.
This year’s EAM’s visit to Seoul added to the overall efforts in bridging the defence relations between the two countries, particularly in the maritime domain, where mutual interests and values align, shaped by India’s Indo-Pacific vision and South Korea’s Indo-Pacific strategy. The Indian Minister S. Jaishankar stressed the importance of strengthening South Korea’s Maritime cooperation with India and Indo-Pacific multilateral initiatives as he pitched for Seoul’s participation in the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) that covers a range of issues from conventional and non-conventional security. Hence, to further foster stronger relations with India and the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), South Korea can join IPOI pillars like trade, connectivity, maritime transport, and marine resources, where it shares expertise. Additionally, South Korea can partner with India and identify maritime projects in the IOR, particularly in Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Mauritius.
Although cooperation has progressed in the maritime domain, much still needs to be covered, particularly as the Red Sea crisis has highlighted the necessity of close maritime cooperation between the navy and coast guard of the two countries through joint anti-piracy patrols and maritime exercises. This reemphasised the significance of India and the IOR in South Korea’s strategic calculus.
The focus towards IOR began under President Moon when Seoul started showing interest in the maritime geography of the IOR and further recognised the vital importance of collaboration with India and multilateral maritime institutions in the IOR, like the Indian Ocean Rim Association, which it joined in 2018 as an observer. His successor, President Yoon, pushed forward this approach, under whom IOR is given importance in Seoul’s Indo-Pacific strategy. For instance, this approach is further strengthened by its latest decision to join the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium in December 2023 as an observer; the IONS is a forum that focuses on maritime cooperation among littoral states of IOR states.
Time for a diplomatic course correction
As both countries explore new areas of opportunities beyond the traditional emphasis on trade and commerce, emerging technologies and defence have particularly captured the attention of both governments. The old template of economics has not been able to elevate the partnership even with high ambitions to reach USD 50 billion, and with new challenges emerging in the Indo-Pacific concerning security and stability, the two countries seem to have realised the necessity to add technology and defence to agenda, both of which are related to their development and security.
Therefore, both sides must focus on essential sectors within the two domains mentioned above where collaboration is required. In technology, the direction should be aimed towards the semiconductors supply chain, EV batteries, and EV automobile manufacturing. In defence cooperation, the focus should be on defence modernisation, co-production, enhancing industrial-scale capabilities, and naval cooperation. However, the success of this new attempt will depend on how fast things move. Political leadership must shoulder the responsibility to drive these initiatives forward as we saw in other bilateral ties. With the presence of political willingness at both ends, it is expected that the upcoming visit of President Yoon to India will likely open a new chapter in Indo-Korean ties.
DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.
Author biography
Abhishek Sharma is a Research Assistant with Observer Research Foundation’s Strategic Studies Programme and a PhD Scholar at the Delhi University. Image credit: Flickr/Republic of Korea.