Korea India Strategic Partnership

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Korea-India relations require long-term strategic cooperation, patience

By Song Kyung-jin

A Korea-India summit is expected soon, seven years after the last full-fledged bilateral summit in February 2019. Amid tumultuous geopolitical and geo-economic developments around the world, and given India is expected to become the world's fourth-largest economy in the first half of 2026, surpassing Japan, the importance of stronger Korea-India relations cannot be overstated. The two countries have not centered each other in their respective geopolitical and geo-economic maps. They have paid lip service to being natural partners without producing any concrete results. Current developments compel the two countries to finally change that, which requires multilayered and multidimensional efforts.

First and foremost, frequent meetings and exchanges between the leaders are crucial for building trust and expanding cooperation. This will invigorate cooperation at the ministerial, vice-ministerial and working levels that have been moribund for some time. The Korea-India Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, the 2+2 Vice-Ministerial Meeting of Foreign Affairs and Defense, and the National Security Councils’ meeting are barely functioning, held only intermittently. When India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, visited Korea in 2024, then-president Yoon Suk Yeol did not even meet him, wasting a good opportunity to demonstrate Korea’s interest in India. The two current leaders need to nail down and regularize the existing meetings at the upcoming bilateral summit.

The same goes for people-to-people exchanges. Korea, known for its “ppali ppali” (hurry, hurry) tendency, and India, with its no-haste attitude, should respect each other’s characteristics and try to meet halfway. Patience and long-term commitment are rules of thumb. Take the example of Hanwha Aerospace, which has been successful in India by providing K9 Vajra howitzers and assisting in strengthening India’s defense capability. It spent a decade building trust with Indian authorities in partnership with a local defense producer, Larsen & Toubro. The lesson is that patience and long-term commitment with a credible Indian partner lays the foundation for drawing interest from India and initiating negotiations. Businesses entering the Indian market must also factor India’s increasing demand for localization into their investment portfolio.

India has significant critical minerals and rare earth reserves, which deserve the keen attention of resource-poor Korea. The two nations can take a pragmatic and rational approach to the mining and processing of rare earths; Korea can provide funding and technologies as well as a skilled workforce. In Korea-India relations, continued trade imbalance is a thorny issue that must be addressed to boost sustainable trade and investment. Korea's trade surplus against India amounted to $6.189 billion, with exports of $9.468 billion and imports of $3.279 billion as of mid-2025. It is a major roadblock, as upgrade negotiations for the Korea-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) — underway since 2016 — have not made progress.

On top of bilateral issues, Korea should also be ready to engage in dialogue with India concerning global and regional issues, such as maritime security cooperation. Ninety percent of Korea’s economy is dependent on maritime trade and the overall stability of the Indo-Pacific. Thus, it should accelerate its maritime security cooperation with the Indian Ocean Rim Association countries as well as East Asian and Pacific nations. For stronger maritime security, the Maritime India Vision 2030 aims to make India the world’s 10th shipbuilding power by increasing its fleet to 2,500 and through large-scale investments in shipbuilding infrastructure. HD Hyundai and Samsung Heavy Industries have concluded memorandums of understanding for collaboration in shipbuilding and offshore plants in India on the back of that demand.

Another front for Korea-India cooperation is the Global South. India led the adoption of the Global South in the G20 in 2023. It was a transformation of the previous development agenda of the Seoul G20 in 2010 into the Global South. Korea has legitimate ownership of development and the Global South agenda in the G20. When Korea hosts the G20 in 2028, it should do its utmost for the G20 members to agree on concrete deliverables for the Global South, such as its adoption of artificial intelligence and digital transformation. Korea and India, successful in digital transformation, can together offer the Global South their technologies and resources for digital transformation. They also can fill the void created by the U.S. pulling its resources out of the Global South. Korea, India and African countries along the Indian Ocean can form triangular cooperation for development, especially in public health and digital transformation.

On the occasion of the upcoming bilateral summit, Korea should make clear its commitment to joining the International Solar Alliance, led by India and France, with over 110 member countries. It will fit nicely into the current Korean government's policy direction. In all of the above endeavors, government-to-government cooperation and nudging will make things go smoother and more promptly.

Song Kyung-jin is a senior fellow at the Asiatic Research Institute at Korea University.