South Korea would like to upgrade its partnership with India, focus on trade, investment: Foreign Minister Park Jin

New Delhi: South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin on Friday said the country would like to upgrade its existing successful partnership with India and focus on trade, investment and supply chain stabilization in the manufacturing sector and also critical minerals.

Jin said he will be holding a meeting with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar to further promote the India-South Korea partnership. "Commemorating half a century of our diplomatic relationship, we would like to upgrade our existing successful partnership with India. So, I'm going to meet with my counterpart S Jaishankar, the Foreign Minister of India to discuss our efforts, joint efforts to promote our partnership and to explore possibilities in deepening and widening our cooperation," the South Korean Foreign Affairs Minister told ANI.

"Important area of special attention is of course trade, investment and supply chain stabilization in the areas of manufacturing sector and also critical minerals. Also in the area of science and technology, South Korea and India have a lot to cooperate with each other such as artificial intelligence, big data, biotechnology and space exploration. So, there is a whole range of possible areas for cooperation," Jin said.
Park Jin is currently on a two-day official visit to India starting Friday. His visit to India comes as the two countries mark the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations.

"This year, Korea and India mark the 50th anniversary of our diplomatic relations. It's half a century. So, I'm very happy to visit India this time to celebrate this special milestone in our bilateral relationship," the South Korean foreign minister told ANI.
He said India is a very important country in South Korea's Indo-Pacific strategy. "South Korea wants to play its roles and responsibilities to contribute to freedom, peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. In that sense, India is our essential partner and close affinity between our two countries dates back 2000 years," Jin said.

"India and South Korea have mutual interest and also mutual possibilities of our greater cooperation for the future. We are now living in a very challenging time. For example, the supply chain disruptions and the global technological competition and COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine and climate crisis and all these common challenges cannot be solved by one country alone. And we need cooperation among the countries that have core values like democracy, free markets, human rights and rural law. India is such an important country to Korea in that sense," he added.

The South Korean Foreign Minister said that based on our 50 years of successful partnership, we should move forward to the future together.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Friday welcomed South Korea's Foreign Affairs Minister Park Jin to India, said his visit will help strengthen India-South Korea Strategic Partnership.

"A warm welcome to FM @FMParkJin of Republic of Korea on his first official visit to India," Bagchi tweeted on Friday.
"As India-South Korea celebrate 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year, the visit will strengthen our Special Strategic Partnership," the tweet further read. (ANI)