Korea’s ‘New Southern Policy’ Towards India: An Analysis

Abstract

The Moon Jae-in administration in South Korea (hereafter Korea) initiated the ‘New Southern Policy’ in 2017 to foster closer relations with ASEAN and India and bring them at par with the four major powers—the United States of America (USA), China, Russia and Japan, which have traditionally played a dominant role in Korea’s foreign affairs. Korea’s strategy through this new policy has been to diversify its foreign relations and lessen dependence on these four major powers of the Northeast Asian region. In this policy shift India is projected as one of the key partners for Korea. However, there has not been much progress in Korea’s relations with India in the last 2 years. The New Southern Policy is also not compatible with US-led ‘Indo-Pacific strategy’ in which India is an integral component. This article argues that Seoul’s New Southern Policy toward New Delhi shall remain limited and would largely focus on developing economic relations rather than building security cooperation between the two countries.