Why Korea needs flexible and prosperous Indo-Pacific vision

By Song Kyung-jin

I take the liberty of guessing that perhaps it is the by-elections taking place in the two largest cities in Korea that forced the government to make two rushed announcements in the space of a week. One was about the immediate possibility of a Korea-U.S. summit within the month of April, and the other was the possibility of a Korea-China bilateral summit soon after the COVID-19 pandemic comes under control. Neither was confirmed by the counterparts. It has in effect undermined the credibility of the Korean government. But at the bottom of it all lies the alleged fact that Korea feels lost with its "strategic ambiguity" in dealing with the great power rivalry between China and the United States.

Amid escalating US-China tensions, new and renewed ideas and proposals are mushrooming to manage global governance more efficiently. As recently as late March, seasoned diplomacy experts like Richard Haass and Charles Kupchan brought up an idea of a concert of powers, a global steering group, modelled after the Concert of Europe in the 19th century. The proposed idea will include six powers ― China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia and the United States ― and four regional organizations. What is striking is that there will be no place reserved for Korea in this group. Such a milieu is also ramping up interest in Seoul in the U.S.-led Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) and its operating mechanism, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), currently consisting of Australia, India, Japan and the United States.

Against this backdrop, Korea clearly needs strategic diplomacy designed to ensure its solid engagements in the global governance dialogue. The fact that the Indo-Pacific region is quickly becoming the center of global geopolitics, geoeconomics and geostrategy is calling on Korea to develop a set of its own principles and terms for a rules-based, flexible and prosperous Indo-Pacific in line with the FOIP, on which it will decide on joining the Indo-Pacific and the Quad, free from coercion from any power. There are ample reasons why Korea should do it.

First, Korea's principle-based diplomacy and the US-led value-based diplomacy have a lot in common. Both countries are full-fledged democracies driven by shared values such as human rights, peace, security, prosperity and a rules-based international order. Korea is a former authoritarian country that has turned into a full-fledged democracy with huge economic success, benefitting from the rules-based international order that is now being challenged.

Second, there are areas of convergence between Korea's New Southern Policy (NSP) and the US Indo-Pacific Strategy that can be leveraged, as noted in the Joint Statement of the 2021 Korea―US Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting ("2+2"), March 18. However, the NSP is confined to bilateral trade, economic and people-to-people cooperation between Korea, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and India. Hence, the NSP should be integrated into Korea's Indo-Pacific vision as a trade and economic building block. This will also solve the question of its continuity beyond the current administration stemming from it being under the jurisdiction of an ad-hoc presidential committee.

Third, an Indo-Pacific vision will provide Korea with enhanced leverage in the US-China competition and cooperation, free from coercion from any major power.

Fourth, it will help improve Korea-Japan relations that have deteriorated to the lowest point in recent history and by extension boost Korea-US-Japan trilateral cooperation on issues of common concern and interest in the region and around the world.

Fifth, in doing so, Korea will be able to contribute more to the shared values of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in tandem with its economic weight and thus meet the expectations of the international community. This will provide Korea with a voice and a seat at the table on important regional issues, especially in the forthcoming Quad's vaccine working group, critical and emerging technology working group, and climate working group.

Despite these compelling reasons, in so far as the stigmatized perception of the FOIP and the Quad as being "against China" is not dismantled, there will always be hesitant allies and partners. Therefore, the leaders and proponents of the FOIP and the Quad should broaden the scope of agenda from military and security issues to trade, economy, nuclear energy, cybersecurity, governance and universal values, geared toward advancing a common vision and ensuring peace and prosperity in the region and the world. A perfect example is the 13 meetings in 2020 between the Quad members and Korea, New Zealand and Vietnam to cooperate in containing the COVID-19 pandemic.

They should also make it clear that not all of the existing Indo-Pacific strategies are in exact sync with one another and encourage non-Quad allies and partners to develop their own vision of the Indo-Pacific and the Quad that are free, open and rules-based, as done by ASEAN, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and the U.K. It will allow the concerned countries more room for flexibility and maneuver without compromising their core national values and interests.

Dr. Song Kyung-jin (kj_song@hotmail.com) led the Institute for Global Economics (IGE), based in Seoul, and served as special adviser to the chairman of the Presidential Committee for the Seoul G20 Summit in the Office of the President. Now, she chairs the international cooperation committee called the Innovative Economy Forum.