INTERVIEW falseRio Tinto chairman stresses strategic flexibility for Korea to navigate geopolitical tension

Rio Tinto Chairman Dominic Barton speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at its office in Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

By Lee Gyu-lee

• Published Sep 18, 2025 7:00 AM KST

Amid the upheaval in the global economy, Korea faces an evolving set of challenges from shifting economic orders, disruptive artificial intelligence (AI) innovation and intensifying geopolitical competition.

In the middle of this rough sailing, Dominic Barton, the Canadian chairman of leading multinational mining company Rio Tinto, shared his insights on how Korea can navigate these headwinds and embrace opportunities for sustainable growth, emphasizing its unique position at the crossroads of geopolitical and technological disruption.

Geopolitical risks

Barton, a Ugandan-born business executive who previously served as McKinsey & Company’s global managing partner and Canada’s ambassador to China, defined the current era as being marked by heightened geopolitical risk, with the global economic center of gravity having moved decisively towards Asia over the past decades.

“We're in a very different place now where there's more geopolitical tension, but there's also a rise in a nationalistic industrial policy because of populism … So that's a shift companies have to adjust to,” he said during an interview with The Korea Times at its office in central Seoul, Wednesday.

With the United States and China locked in strategic rivalry, Korea faces growing calls to tread carefully in navigating the complex dilemma of balancing its security and economic interests in between the superpowers.

“It is challenging because I think it is both from a market point of view, but also a security point of view … South Korea has to, first of all, be very self-interested. And that means you have to navigate with both (countries),” he said, noting it would be irrational to see the situation as black and white.

“There's a lot of trade, investment and areas to do things with China, but there are probably areas you can’t do the same with the U.S.”

He emphasized that Korea should deeply contemplate what its unique strengths are, while not assuming that international trade agreements or friendly relations will always proceed as planned, underlining the need for a proactive and self-interested approach to its global strategy.

“South Korea is pivotal for the U.S.’ naval fleet development. And there’s (semiconductor) chips from Samsung and others,” he said. “It's not so much talking about it but just having people recognizing that (Korea is) actually quite critical to you … So it's becoming more strategic about where you have leverage.”

Opportunities of AI, globalization

Pointing out the threats and opportunities posed by AI, both globally and for Korea, Barton observed that while Korea has excelled in being a "fast follower" in many technologies, the next phase requires leadership rather than just adoption.

“One thing that worries me… is (Korea’s) productivity. It has been dropping,” he said. “It has sort of been more of a fast follower, but I actually think it has the companies and the capabilities, and has just got to ensure that they get the capital to move out and think about the globalized.”

He stressed that Korean companies must look beyond their domestic market and take bold steps to globalize if they want to compete with the biggest AI players — the U.S. and China — emphasizing the need to prioritize diversity and corporate governance reform to unlock innovation at scale.

“(Korean companies) export products around the world. But when you take a closer look at the governance structure and corporate culture, I don't think I can say they are globalized,” he said.

“One (area) is to think about the ownership. To what extent are they globally held? … Because that changes dynamics if you have global shareholders versus just primarily local; that's one angle.”

He also urged both firms and policymakers to actively support sustained investment and dynamism aimed at creating globally competitive businesses, not just in AI but also generally.

“Successful long-term companies reallocate capital regularly, and it is in the order of 5 to 7 percent a year … I would argue that the capital reallocation rate in the average Korean company is much lower than you’d see in the average American company,” he said.

“The dynamism of the average company (in Korea) is slower than the dynamism of the market … Some of these big companies that are being formed in the AI space have less than 10 people, so we have to adapt to that.”

Energy transition

Discussing Rio Tinto’s role in and perspective on the global energy transition, Barton explained that the global move toward net zero and clean energy rests on securing vast quantities of critical materials, including copper, iron ore, lithium and aluminum.

“We need to be able to get anywhere close to the 1.5-degree (Celsius) target, which is going to be very difficult. We’re going to need a lot of metal to be able to do that transition,” he said. The 1.5-degree Celsius target is a climate goal in the Paris Agreement, aimed at limiting limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century.

“Just to give you a couple of examples, it takes about two and a half to three times as much copper in a car when it’s an electric vehicle versus a traditional internal combustion engine model," he added.

While the renewable energy transition and the evolution in AI have opened up new business opportunities for Rio Tinto, they have also brought significant changes, he added.

“You’ve got the AI with the data centers (which require substantial materials to build). And then the amount of steel that is in a wind turbine is significant, so that we're excited about playing a role in that and that's a growth opportunity,” he said.

“We don't have enough of that material, so we have to find it. We also have to recycle it. So there's a lot of change I think that will be required.”

He noted that Korea is a crucial market for Rio Tinto, not only as a major client for essential minerals but also as a leader in advanced manufacturing and energy transition innovation, with companies including POSCO, LG and SK driving both industrial progress and strong collaborative partnerships that are vital for the global shift to cleaner and more resilient supply chains.

“I think that POSCO is a very advanced steel manufacturing company … They're not only an important client but are leading in terms of how they operate,” he said.

“(And with) what's happening in the battery world, there are a lot of Korean companies that are leading for lithium that we want to have a very close relationship with.”

Barton stressed the importance of demonstrating social license to operate through strong community engagement and a focus on sustainability.

“(Community partnership) initiatives are really important for building social license and I think that they are also fundamental to shareholder value. It’s not a separate cost but part of actually delivering value,” he said.

“So as a mining company, even though we're not a technology company so to speak. We have a role to play to ensure that the country develops and leverages the benefit of the mind to diversify and broaden and that's part of social license.”

Describing himself as a “frightened optimist,” he reflected on the profound uncertainty with geopolitical tensions and widening income inequality, noting they are two global risks that worry him. He warned that faster technological shifts, especially in AI, will further deepen polarization, as a small group of experts and companies capture growing economic value, while much of society is left to adapt to instability and disruption.

“Technology is going to exacerbate, it's going to make (income inequality) worse … And when polarization happens, then economies begin to crumble within the system,” he said.

“I still think there's (a chance to prevent that). Let's figure out ways and make sure there's lots of dialogue, discussions and learning, and not be black and white on people.”