Seoul seeks cautious balance in US, China ties via Indo-Pacific strategy

Director of National Security Kim Sung-han announces South Korea's Indo-Pacific strategy during a press conference at the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap

Yoon administration eyes stronger alliance with US, more mature relationship with China

By Nam Hyun-woo

South Korea on Wednesday unveiled the complete version of its Indo-Pacific Strategy, which is aimed at pursuing freedom, peace and prosperity in the region through the principles of inclusiveness, trust and reciprocity.

The presidential office stressed that its Indo-Pacific strategy is distinctive from that of the U.S. by emphasizing inclusiveness and not excluding any specific country, which appears to be a cautious balance-seeking effort regarding China.

"The Indo-Pacific strategy is a comprehensive regional strategy aimed at facilitating our national interests in the region, whose geopolitical importance is ever growing," Director of National Security Office Kim Sung-han said during a press conference on South Korea's Indo-Pacific strategy.

"President Yoon Suk-yeol has been reiterating the importance of freedom and solidarity, and the values are reflected in the Indo-Pacific strategy. It will help foreign governments understand the value that we pursue and improve the country's' credibility in the international society."

The report stated that Seoul will continue strengthen its alliance with the U.S., seek forward-looking partnerships with Japan and nurture a more mature relationship with China based on mutual respect and reciprocity.

The report appears to reflect South Korea's stance of being in line with the U.S. in terms of Indo-Pacific strategy, because freedom, rules-based order, democracy, human rights and other values that the U.S. has been promoting recently are underscored throughout the report.

"We intend to expand cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to effectively address transnational security challenges, including emerging technologies and climate change," according to the report. "We also seek to gradually expand nodes of cooperation with the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad)."

In June, NATO declared for the first time that China a security challenge. China has been describing the Quad, a strategic forum, as an "Asian NATO."

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However, the presidential office said South Korea's Indo-Pacific strategy is distinguishable from that of the U.S., because it stresses inclusiveness.

"Inclusiveness means that we will not target or exempt any specific nation, and we are open to every partner nation sharing our vision and principles," Kim said.

A senior official at the presidential office said, "It is wrong to view that we refuse to cooperate with our neighbor China." The official added, "One of the key principles of the Indo-Pacific strategy is inclusiveness. It is not about exempting or containing a certain country."

As the official mentioned, the report states that trilateral cooperation between South Korea, Japan and China is "indispensable to the establishment of stability and achievement of prosperity" and Seoul will seek new opportunities and momentum for regional cooperation through trilateral summits and other vehicles.

"Unlike the U.S. Indo-Pacific report, we mention the trilateral summit and trilateral cooperation," the senior official said. "Although we highlight South Korea-U.S.-Japan security cooperation, we also put enough emphasis on cooperation and communication between Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo."

Go Myung-hyun, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said Seoul's publishing of its own Indo-Pacific strategy is "an effort to depart from the previous Moon Jae-in government's policy of strategic ambiguity and stress clarity in South Korea's diplomatic stance."

"The strategy serves as a tool to remove uncertainties on whether South Korea will express its stance about a certain diplomatic or international issue," Go said. "However, it remains to be seen how Seoul will apply those strategies in actual diplomatic circumstances."

The Indo-Pacific Strategy is the first case of the South Korean government coming up with its own regional diplomatic strategy.

The Yoon administration has been preparing the Indo-Pacific Strategy since the May 21 summit between Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden in Seoul.

In November, Yoon outlined the gist of the strategy _ pursuing freedom, peace and prosperity through inclusiveness, trust and reciprocity _ during a South Korea-ASEAN Summit in Cambodia. Wednesday's report is an expanded version of that statement, containing nine "core lines of efforts" on how to facilitate the strategy.

They are: "building regional order based on norms and rules," "cooperation to promote rule of law and human rights," "strengthening Non-proliferation and counter-terrorism efforts across the region," "expanding comprehensive security cooperation," "building economic security networks," "strengthening cooperation in critical domains of science and technology and close digital gap," "lead regional cooperation on climate change and energy security," "engaging in contributive diplomacy through tailored development cooperation partnerships" and "promoting mutual understanding and exchanges."

President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during the South Korea-ASEAN Summit at a hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 11. Courtesy of presidential office

Based on those action plans, the reports explained how South Korea will "expand our diplomatic horizon beyond the Korean Peninsula" in regions of the North Pacific, Southeast Asia and ASEAN, South Asia, Oceania, the African coast and the Indian Ocean, Europe and Latin America.

"As a global pivotal state, the Republic of Korea seeks to expand the geographical scope and breadth of cooperation," the English-version report reads. "As we deepen bilateral partnerships grounded in common interests, our approach will be multi-layered and comprehensive as we pursue partnerships with minilateral groupings that are aligned with our principles of cooperation, as well as regional and international organizations."