- India and South Korea to expand cooperation in energy sector.
- First South Korean presidential state visit to India in eight years.
- South Korean president will visit Vietnam after India.
India and South Korea said on Monday they will strengthen economic ties by expanding cooperation in energy, essential minerals, shipbuilding, semiconductors and steel, as they seek to double trade to $50 billion by 2030.
New Delhi and Seoul also agreed to resume and intensify negotiations to inject new energy into their 2010 trade deal, with India wanting their trade to be more balanced and South Korea wanting greater market access in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung is in India for a three-day visit, the first South Korean presidential state visit to the country in eight years.
“We have decided to improve the economic cooperation framework between the two countries to create a new engine of shared growth,” Lee told reporters after a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The two countries established a ministerial-level economic cooperation committee for the first time, Lee said, adding that they would strengthen cooperation in areas such as nuclear power plants, clean energy and trade and investment.
As the war in Iran reduces global energy supplies, India and South Korea will also continue to cooperate to ensure stable supplies of energy resources and key raw materials such as naphtha, Lee added.
Modi said Lee’s visit was extremely significant and the two countries had taken important decisions to increase bilateral trade to $50 billion by 2030 from around $27 billion currently.
“Today, we are laying the foundation for success in the next decade,” Modi said, recalling the strong civilizational ties between the two countries dating back centuries.
Big investment in Indian steel sector
Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said he spoke with his South Korean counterpart, Yeo Han-koo, and discussed ways to resume and revamp the trade deal and explored opportunities to deepen cooperation in the areas of industry, green energy and digital trade.
Lee will attend a joint business forum later Monday where some 250 South Korean participants are expected, including executives of big names in India such as Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor and LG Group, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said.
The two sides also plan to sign a total of 20 private sector memorandums of understanding on the sidelines of the forum, covering areas such as shipbuilding, digital technology and energy, Yonhap said.
Separately, South Korea’s Posco Holdings said in a regulatory filing on Monday that its steel production unit plans to build an integrated steel plant in a joint venture with India’s JSW in Odisha state. Posco’s investment through the end of 2031 is expected to be about $1.09 billion, the filing said.
The joint venture agreement to set up a 6 million tonne per annum steel plant in Odisha was announced last week.
At a policy seminar at South Korea’s Parliament last week, Maeng Hyun-chul, a researcher at Seoul National University’s Asia Center, highlighted India’s long-standing complaint of a growing trade deficit with South Korea and said political relations had not kept pace with trade relations.
South Korea recorded a trade surplus of $12.8 billion last year, with exports worth $19.2 billion and imports worth $6.4 billion, according to data from the Korea International Trade Association.
Lee will travel to Vietnam after India.
