Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun held his first bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister of India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, on August 16, 2025, in New Delhi. The two ministers discussed high-level exchanges, practical cooperation, and regional affairs. The year 2025 marks the 52st anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, bilateral trade between India and Korea grew by 21.46% to $27.8 billion in 2022-23.(PHOTO: MOFA)
During his bilateral visit to India, Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun held his first bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister of India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar since taking office, on August 16 in New Delhi. The two ministers discussed high-level exchanges, practical cooperation, and regional affairs.
Minister Cho underscored that the new Korean administration is pursuing diplomatic diversification, including by continuing and advancing its New Southern Policy, in line with its own vision of being a “responsible global power that responds pragmatically to changes in the international order.” He emphasized that, as part of such efforts, Korea seeks to further advance its Special Strategic Partnership with India, its key partner in the Asia-Pacific region.
Minister Jaishankar expressed appreciation to Minister Cho, former Ambassador to India, for visiting New Delhi less than a month into his tenure. He stressed that India also places great importance on strengthening cooperation with Korea’s new administration.
“It’s not very often that you have a chance to welcome an old friend as a new colleague,” Minister Jaishankar said in his opening remarks durung the meeting. He said, “Let me also take the opportunity to extend our greetings to you for the National Liberation Day of Korea, and your visit, I think, in many ways, comes at a very important time –it is the 10th anniversary of our Special Strategic Partnership.”
Minister Jaishankar said, “I want to express our gratitude for the ROK’s condemnation of the terrorist attack that took place in Pahalgam on 22nd of April, and the fact that when our Parliamentary delegation went to Seoul, I think they got very good meetings,” and “I do want to say that there is a lot that we have to discuss –defence, security, business, economics, connectivity, people -to – people relations. So, I welcome you again and look forward to a very good, productive meeting.”
The two ministers noted ongoing close high-level exchanges betweenthe two countries since the inauguration of the new Korean government, including the bilateral summit in Canada on June 17 on the margins of the 2025 G7 Summit and the visit of the President’s special envoys to India on July 17–18.
They agreed to elevate Korea-India relations to a new level through deeper strategic communication and all-around cooperation, as the two countries mark the 10th anniversary of their Special Strategic Partnership this year.
Both ministers agreed to further invigorate high-level communication, including at the leader’s level. Minister Jaishankar extended an invitation for the Korean President to visit India at a mutually convenient time.
The ministers further agreed to move forward negotiations for upgrading the Korea-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA); to strengthen cooperation in economic security areas, including supply chains and critical technologies; and to continue expanding cooperation on defense and the relevant industry.
On that note, Minister Cho requested India’s special attention to and support for Korean companies operating in India.
The two ministers acknowledged the long-standing historical and cultural ties between the two nations as well as the growing interest of their peoples in each other’s cultures; and agreed to further expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
The ministers also engaged in an in-depth exchange of views on regional and global affairs, including situation on the Korean Peninsula.
The year 2025 marks the 52st anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, bilateral trade between India and Korea grew by 21.46% to $27.8 billion in 2022-23.
South Korea is one of India’s largest Foreign Direct Investment contributors, having invested USD 5.78 billion in key sectors such as metallurgy, automobiles, and electronics from April 2000 to December 2023.
With continuing and strengthening economic ties, both countries continue to remain bullish with the aim to reach USD 50 billion in bilateral trade by 2030.
While it’s India’s moment to shine as an investment destination, South Korea is well poised to make the most of it, considering geopolitical circumstances, government initiatives and sector policies, all favour cementing a strong relationship.
South Korea and India share a mutual interest due to India’s ‘Act East’ policy and South Korea’s ‘Act Southern’ policy. In South Korea’s first comprehensive regional strategy –the Indo-Pacific Strategy – Seoul has called New Delhi a special strategic partner. India can further help Korea diversify its economic portfolio and supply chains, given the US-China trade war. Currently, China is South Korea’s largest trading partner.
Additionally, several government and industry initiatives further facilitate trade and investment, such as:
A South Korea-focused programme ‘Korea Plus’ was included under the ‘Invest India’ scheme in 2019, working closely with governments, corporates and industry associations to facilitate investment;
The Joint Ministerial Committee of India and South Korea are undertaking annual review of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which will ensure a more balanced and equitable trade;
India-South Korea Electronic Origin Data Exchange System has been launched to streamline implementation of CEPA via elec-tronic exchange of information; and increased collaboration in the start-up ecosystem – ‘Korea-IndiaSME and Start-Up Centre’, which was established to assist South Korean start-ups in India, to facilitate joint innovation between the two economies, including signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Invest India in April 2021 to assist Korean startups with networking, B2B connections, etc., in India.
The Indian Chamber of Commerce in South Korea has been playing a crucial role in receiving trade enquiries from Indian businesses for identifying Korean local partners. It also offers know-how to South Korean businesses in terms of business culture and prospects for business and investment in India and vice-versa.
The Indo-Pacific is a regional construct initiated and led by the U.S., Japan, Australia, and India (QUAD) and strategically supplemented by the ongoing Sino-U.S. rivalry.
While the USA envisions the Indo-Pacific as a security-focused alignment network that will advance a ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ toward balancing a ‘rising and assertive China,’ others envisaged it as a ‘free, open, and inclusive’ regional order focusing on partnerships and collaborations. This inclusivity extends to China, the U.S., and middle powers like the Republic of Korea (ROK).
India’s vision of an inclusive Indo-Pacific can be harmonized with South Korea’s vision of a ‘free, peaceful, prosperous’ Indo-Pacific. India’s quest for strategic autonomy and establishment of a multipolar world order can be accommodative of South Korea’s aspirations to be a ‘global pivot state’ and shape regional order collectively, as well as create a balancing act that can support rising India and middle power South Korea amidst superpower politics.
Indo-Pacific strategies have createdavenues of equivalent partnership within a security and economic framework.
Both states are major stakeholders in the Indo-Pacific region. They are crucial to how the strategic narrative will pan out, particularly due to the U.S.’s backing of their regional centrality to counter China.
The ROK, with its legacy of going from one of the poorest countries in the world to being an OECD member and a powerhouse of technological innovation in strategic sectors such as semiconductors, promises to be a source of immense development cooperation with India, which has managed to become the fifth-largest economy in the world, and setting records with an annual growth rate of 7.6% according to IMF data, registering the highest growth rate amongst the biggest economies of the world.
India should look at South Korea and not just ASEAN to expand its diplomatic influence beyond its immediate neighborhood in South Asia.
India’s multi-alignment strategy based on issue-based coalitions complements South Korea’s quest to “seek out agenda for cooperation and shape discussions in the region and the wider world.” A bilateral relationship based on a mutual understanding of strategic autonomy incentivizes a long-term comprehensive relation-ship, both in the strategic and economic domains.
In 2015, New Delhi and Seoul became signatories to the ‘Special Strategic Partnership,’ and in 2019, India received favorable status under South Korean foreign policy as part of the New Southern Policy (NSP). These developments were excitable for the keen observers of the Indo-Pacific regional construct, as they marked a closer association between the comparatively disconnected regional neighbors in the past. Despite previously having been a part of a free trade agreement under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2009, the economic engagement between the two states is still relatively low, with India’s share in South Korean imports limited to 1.88% in 2021, while its share in the latter’s exports was a meagre 1.02% the same year.
South Korean investments in India, such as the likes of Hyundai, LG, Samsung, and Kia, have certainly made a favourable impact on a sizable chunk of Indian households; however, overall infrastructural investment in India is still scarce.
Neither has South Korea managed appropriately to tap into India as a low-cost manufacturing base.
If South Korea plans to project itself as a ‘Global Pivot State,’ it has to establish itself within the Indo-Pacific landscape by diversifying its partnerships with other regional actors, which are both economically and technologically sound. India shares similar aspirations of being a regional leader and has emphasized developmental projects as crucial to its foreign policy.
South Korea, as an OECD member, has been described as an ‘indispensable part’ of India’s ‘Act East Policy’ by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, reflecting India’s deep-seated desire to be part of multi-lateral, mutually beneficial and sustainable economic partnerships.★
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