by Dr Eunsook Chung, Senior Fellow Emeritus of Security Strategy Studies at Sejong Institute, Seoul
In December last year, South Korea also adopted its official version of an Indo-Pacific strategy entitled “Strategy for a free, peaceful, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region”. While emphasising the Indo-Pacific as home to 65% of the world population, accounting for more than 60% of the world’s GDP and half of global maritime transport, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration recognised the complicated nature of challenges threatening “a free, peaceful, and prosperous Indo-Pacific.” In its view, the Indo-Pacific was facing challenges such as eroding stability of the regional order, uncertainties in the security environment, growing concerns about democratic relapse contesting universal values like freedom, the rule of law, and human rights. In these worrying circumstances, South Korea is to become a “global pivotal state” seeking out an agenda for cooperation in the region and beyond to build a sustainable and resilient regional order.
A strategic partnership with the EU
In the document, European countries, who are also increasing their engagement with the Indo-Pacific, are considered to be important partners in implementing its vision for a free, peaceful, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. In particular, the relationship with Europe is perceived as a partnership based on “value diplomacy.” Given this perception, it is logical that South Korea will be heightening substantive cooperation with the European Union (EU) and its 27 Member States as well as the United Kingdom, with whom Seoul shares the same core values of freedom, democracy, and human rights. Also, greater linkages and cooperation between the Indo-Pacific and Europe are conceived to help preserve and strengthen the rules-based international order and possibly open discussions on new areas of cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Recently the EU has become one of the most important partners for Seoul in economic security such as global supply chains of semiconductor and energy.
At the 10th South Korea-EU Summit in Seoul last May, the leaders celebrated the 60th anniversary of their diplomatic relations and agreed to further strengthen their strategic partnership established in 2010. The leaders discussed issues of peace and stability, economy and trade, and sustainable development, and particularly at this year’s summit, the two sides gave a strong signal of increased cooperation as like-minded partners, reaffirming their partnership based on common interests and shared values, recommitting to the support for Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity; complete denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula; multilateralism; a free, open and rules-based Indo-Pacific; and freedom of overflight and navigation, including in the South China Sea. The leaders also highlighted their cooperation on economic security, addressing supply chain disruptions.
A closer link with NATO
South Korea’s Indo-Pacific Strategy 2022 also stipulated 31-member NATO as an important partner for its Indo-Pacific strategy. The document mentioned President Yoon’s attendance at the NATO 2022 summit in Madrid, in his inauguration year, as an important juncture in widening its vision of the Indo-Pacific to the Euro-Atlantic and beyond. Indeed, it was the first time a president of the Republic of Korea attended an annual NATO summit. Moreover, South Korea’s mission to NATO was newly established in November last year, hoping that the NATO-South Korea partnership will be further developed with it.
Since 2006 when South Korea became a global partner of
NATO, its cooperation with NATO has proceeded on an individual country basis, like other partners across the globe for NATO. In the case of the Indo-Pacific, in addition to South Korea, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand are also NATO’s global partners. In its Security Concept newly adopted by the 2022 Madrid summit, NATO affirmed the close links between the security of the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific and emphasised the need for mutual partnership for a rules-based international order. President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was attending as a leader of a NATO partner state, expressed South Korea’s commitment to strengthening its partnership with NATO based on the shared values of democracy and the rule of law, and to contribute to safeguarding the rules-based international order. This year again, on 12 July 2023 at the NATO summit in Vilnius, President Yoon, while recognising the link between the security of Europe and Asia, expressed his willingness to expand mutual sharing of military intelligence with NATO. South Korea signed the Individually Tailored Partnership Programme with NATO and decided on systematic cooperation in 11 sectors including nonproliferation, cybersecurity and emerging technologies. On the war in Ukraine, President Yoon stressed South Korea’s commitment to providing humanitarian assistance and taking part in NATO’s Ukraine Trust Funds to strengthen Ukraine’s resilience.
Towards a Global Pivotal State
In line with last year’s Indo-Pacific strategy, the Yoon administration released another comprehensive guiding document in June this year, which focuses on national security: ”National Security Strategy”: Global Pivotal State for Freedom, Peace, and Prosperity. It has three emphases: first, safeguarding universal values and upholding the international order based on rules and principles; second, strengthening the Republic of Korea’s military to make it a more solid foundation of security; third, expanding its contribution to the international community in facing global challenges, such as disease, famine, poverty, the digital divide, and climate change. For instance, Seoul is to increase its Official Development Assistance (ODA) volume for the upcoming year by over 40% to assist the Global South.
To summarise, overall, the Republic of Korea and partners in the EU and NATO have common interests and shared values which require far more strengthened cooperation than before in the geographies of the Indo-Pacific, Euro-Atlantic and beyond, including above all the Global South, as well as on major multilateral platforms including the United Nations. As a member of the UN Security Council for the 2024-2025 term, South Korea is committing to playing a responsible role in promoting and building global peace as it works closely with other UN member states.
Dr Eunsook Chung
is Senior Fellow Emeritus of Security Strategy Studies at the Sejong Institute in Seoul. She is a graduate of Korea University and obtained her Ph.D. in Political Science from Ohio State University. Dr Chung has been a visiting fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Austrian Institute for International Affairs, and the Peace Research Institute in Frankfurt. She served on the board of directors at the Academic Council of the United Nations Systems (ACUNS) from 2015 to 2018.
