It is noteworthy that the government revealed its plan to establish a ‘Korean version of the Indo-Pacific (Intae) strategy’ during the Korea-US summit as an opportunity.
The joint statement of the summit between President Yoon Seok-yeol and President Joe Biden, released on the 21st, included the content that “President Biden expressed support for President Yun Seok-yeol’s initiative to establish Korea’s Indo-Pacific strategic framework.”
“The two leaders recognized the importance of maintaining a prosperous, peaceful, free and open Indo-Pacific, and agreed to strengthen mutual cooperation across the region,” the statement said.
In this regard, the presidential office said, “We will push ahead with work to materialize our HR strategy,” and said that it would push for announcing Korea’s HR strategy at an appropriate time during this year.
It has considerable diplomatic significance for South Korea to formulate its own strategy.
This is because Korea has not actively used the concept of the Indo-Pacific region in the meantime, compared to the US, Japan, Australia, and European countries, where major countries in the world have been announcing their strategies for interpersonal cooperation.
The concept of the Indo-Pacific region cannot be separated from the US-China strategic competition.
From around 2017, during the Trump administration, the US began to use the term ‘Indo-Pacific’ in earnest instead of the term ‘Asia-Pacific’, which collectively referred to the region from Northeast Asia, Australia, and India. In 2018, the Pacific Command was renamed the Indo-Pacific Command.
Many analyzes say that the ‘Indo-Pacific’, which recognizes the Indian and Pacific Oceans as strategically connected spaces, contains the meaning of trying to contain China’s maritime advances. It is also characteristic of the Indo-Pacific concept that high strategic value was given to India to contain China.
Until the Moon Jae-in administration, South Korea pursued the New Southern Policy, which focused on strengthening cooperation with ASEAN and India, instead of directly establishing an interpersonal strategy.
The U.S. Human Resources Strategy Department mainly used expressions emphasizing the ‘common denominator’, such as “cooperating to link Korea’s New Southern Policy with the free and open Indo-Pacific initiative of the United States” (a joint statement by the ROK-U.S. leaders in May last year). .
This is interpreted as being wary of appearing to be participating in the goal of the US strategy to contain China. The common denominator between the New Southern Policy and the American People’s Strategy was that they mainly focused on substantive cooperative projects targeting ASEAN.
The fact that the new government announced that it would establish Korea’s interpersonal strategy can be interpreted as meaning that it would develop the character of the existing New Southern Policy into a more expanded regional strategy.
In an answer to a written inquiry at the National Assembly’s personnel hearings during his time as a candidate, Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin said, “The new southern policy has been focused on functional cooperation.” We will continue to develop it into a more comprehensive regional policy.”
This is expected to naturally lead to the expansion of contact points with the U.S. Integrity Strategy. The role of the ROK-U.S. alliance may be an important opportunity to expand to the regional level in maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
It is also of interest to see how Korea’s interpersonal strategy will define and establish relations with China.
Kim Hyun-wook, a professor at the National Diplomatic Academy, said, “It is still not easy to see China as a threat, but it is expected to explain the security environment in the Intai region, posit threats and challenges, and reveal our strategic objectives and specific policy means to resolve them.” high predicted.
As part of the HR strategy, the new government has in mind to strengthen cooperation with Quad.
To this end, it is planning to initiate full-scale consultations with four quadruped countries: Japan, Australia, and India, as well as the United States. It is expected that Korea will seek first ways to cooperate in sub-fields with complementary strengths, such as eradicating pandemics, responding to climate change, and developing core technologies.
However, it is unclear whether cooperation with Quad will take place in an official form of ‘participating in a working group → seeking official membership’.
This is because Quad does not currently operate a specific working group.
A high-ranking US official said at a briefing with the White House press team accompanying President Biden on his visit to Korea on the 22nd, “Currently, we are not considering adding a quad to South Korea. That’s my goal right now,” he said.