Yoon-Biden summit, toward Korea becoming global pivotal state

By Song Kyung-jin

The Yoon-Biden summit on May 21 was a success as in the case of most summit meetings. As written in the two leaders' joint statement, it marked the earliest summit meeting in a Korean president's term in office with the U.S. president.

Reemphasizing the bilateral alliance as the linchpin for peace and prosperity in the region, the two leaders agreed to upgrade it to a "global comprehensive strategic alliance." The global comprehensive strategic alliance is aimed at upholding the critical importance of values (democracy), prosperity (economy), and technology-based alliance in the rules-based international order.

The two presidents agreed on launching bilateral economic and security dialogue headed by respective national security councils. It is with a view to aligning the bureaucratic and policy approaches to supply chain resilience and enhancing the bilateral partnership and research and development on critical and emerging technologies. Such critical technologies include semiconductors, EV batteries, artificial intelligence, quantum technology, biotechnology, aerospace, etc.

As part of the bilateral technology initiative, I would like to propose for the two governments to consider creating a Korea-U.S. joint research and development fund worth $1 billion at the minimum to collaborate on research and development (R&D) of critical technologies and to set the global standards for such technologies. This joint fund will provide a natural conduit for stronger people-to-people ties.

The new initiative may be useful in revitalizing the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) currently faced with declining budget contributions and getting the Korean government to contemplate establishing a DARPA-like agency to promote focused and in-depth R&D, projects of which will be free from bureaucratic interventions for a fixed, long period of time. Added to it, it will create decent jobs in both countries.

The joint statement also well illustrates Korea's ambition to play an enhanced role and take more responsibilities in tandem with its heightened posture on the regional and global stage. It indeed is in line with President Yoon's consistent emphasis that it is high time for Korea to think clearly about what kind of an advanced nation it wishes to be.

Korea's announcement of its plan to map out its own Indo-Pacific strategy during the summit perfectly fits in with Korea's repositioning endeavor as a global leading economy. It delighted me most. I have been advocating for some time on the need for Korea to prepare its own Indo-Pacific strategy whereby it states its philosophy and stance on regional and global geopolitics and geoeconomics. More and more countries are preparing their own Indo-Pacific framework ― be it a strategy, a policy, a vision, a set of guidelines or an outlook. More and more of them tend to act collectively to deal with political and economic challenges in the region.

For strengthening cooperation on the economic and energy security front, the United States proposed the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) and 13 countries in the Indo-Pacific including Korea and the United States signed up on May 23. The 13 signatories will discuss toward future negotiations on four pillars ― trade; supply chains; clean energy, decarbonization, and infrastructure; and tax and anti-corruption.

The IPEF is an initiative that is still incomplete in substance and form, thus it requires the collective work of the members to fill in the details. It is not even a treaty but an executive agreement. If it were to not repeat the same mistake of the Economic Prosperity Network of the Trump administration, the members ought to move quickly to substantiate it and make viable partnerships and projects, including market access.

Korea should lead by example as President Yoon has pledged many times. Korea repositioning itself as a global pivotal country now should be able to offer its intellectual leadership toward advancing global discussions in line with shared democratic principles and universal values. For example, the Yoon government can think of a multi-year ASEAN infrastructure partnership with Australia, Japan, the United States and Vietnam.

Today foreign policy and domestic policy are two sides of the same coin. Foreign policy is no more about lavish meals and a series of meetings. It is about creating jobs and prosperity for each country. We all saw that President Biden was focused and busy striking deals to create jobs for his fellow citizens.

This process also includes how best to develop and utilize human resources. In light of the accelerating population aging and low rate of births, making the best use of human resources readily available and highly educated is utterly critical at this juncture.

Also, we should not lose sight that the so-called battle of the sexes between men and women in their 20s that sparked a nationwide controversy and is still ongoing is really about the youth's frustration over a lack of decent jobs.

The Yoon government must make sure to be aware of this as being the case when it comes to fulfilling its commitments to the nation.

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.