Global pivotal state vision and Korea's new multilateral diplomacy

By Yun Byung-se

"The attendance of the South Korean president at the NATO summit for the first time has historical significance at the NATO level," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during his meeting with President Yoon Suk-yeol in Madrid last week.

From my standpoint, the implications of President Yoon's attendance at the summit are in no way confined to the global partnership between Korea and NATO, but are far-reaching for his administration's foreign and security policies down the road. Among other things, I attach special importance to the revitalization of Korea's multilateral diplomacy and to the growing and dynamic linkage of Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific collaboration on multiple global and regional challenges beyond the Korean Peninsula.

Indeed, President Yoon set out a national vision for a "global pivotal state" (GPS) and foreshadowed his commitment toward global leadership. In his inaugural speech, he put forth a sober assessment of multiple complex crises across the world that no one country or group of countries can resolve on their own.

He sent out a loud and clear message to work with fellow global citizens to solve problems within and beyond our respective borders. He declared that Korea will take on a greater role befitting its stature and in response to the calls of international community, including in sharing and protecting freedom, liberal democracy and the rule of law around the world.

What is noteworthy is the speed and resolve of follow-up actions being taken to fulfill his statements, both bilaterally and multilaterally, as well as the positive feedback from the U.S. and many like-minded countries. U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to Korea ― coming unprecedentedly early on the 10th day after the Korean president's inauguration ― and the comprehensive joint statement with President Yoon served as a springboard for Korea's new multilateral diplomacy.

Their agreement to upgrade the U.S.-Korea alliance to a "global comprehensive strategic alliance beyond the Korean Peninsula" echoed Yoon's vision for Korea as a global pivotal state with a heightened role in advancing peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. They reaffirmed that "the global comprehensive strategic alliance is firmly rooted in the shared values of promoting democracy and the rules-based international order, fighting corruption and advancing human rights."

On the multilateral front, Yoon, in the short span of less than two months, attended the 2nd Global COVID-19 Summit and Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) inaugural summit virtually as well as the NATO summit. On the margins of the NATO summit, the first trilateral summit among the U.S., Korea and Japan in almost five years was held and a meeting of the leaders of the four Asia-Pacific partner nations was also held for the first time.

While the COVID-19 summit was about the global health security of humankind as a whole, the IPEF and NATO summits were more about shaping a new international order ensuing from the end of the post-Cold War era, triggered primarily by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and aggravating U.S.-China strategic competition.

As the IPEF and NATO countries are more concerned with challenges and threats from the fast-changing geopolitical and geo-economic realities, they inevitably focus on how to galvanize the solidarity of like-minded countries who share the same rules-based order, universal values and security concerns.

For one thing, NATO's 2022 Strategic Concept adopted last week elucidated its vision: "We want to live in a world where sovereignty, territorial integrity, human rights and international law are respected and where each country can choose its own path, free from aggression, coercion or subversion. We work with all who share these goals." This vision is basically not much different from what South Korea stands for.

This is why South Korea established a global partnership with NATO in 2006 and the two have worked together ever since in Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and Libya, as well as on various non-traditional security issues such as terrorism and cybersecurity. Three Korean foreign ministers, including myself, addressed the North Atlantic Council ― NATO's principal decision-making body ― on our common agendas. Korea is now poised to conclude a new partnership arrangement and open its mission to NATO later this year. As crises and conflicts are becoming boundless and borderless more than ever before, NATO and the Indo-Pacific countries, including Korea, are expected to collaborate more frequently.

In a similar vein, as the EU and Korea forged a strategic partnership in 2010, they will get closer through each other's Indo-Pacific strategy. Yoon's government is set to adopt a new Indo-Pacific strategy in the coming months. As such, it is so timely that NATO invited the leader of Korea along with three other global partners from the Indo-Pacific: Japan, Australia and New Zealand. When the Indo-Pacific meets the Euro-Atlantic, it could have huge impacts.

Such tendencies of like-minded partners to work together on common challenges in their regions or inter-regionally will be on the rise in an era of weakening global multilateral bodies like the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the U.N. Security Council, in particular. As the Yoon government made a good start on the above multilateral fronts, it should now carry the momentum forward in forthcoming regional and global gatherings and make its voice heard on issues of both common concern and interest, such as at the G20, East Asia Summit (EAS), Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Summit for Democracy and the United Nations and its diverse bodies, to name a few.

No doubt, the road to a full-fledged global pivotal state will be long and bumpy. It requires a global mindset, prescience, enlightened self-interest, financial burden sharing, domestic support and, among other things, unwavering commitment to our common values and principles.

Formidable obstacles are already in place and will continue to come, including from our northern neighbors. We should manage and overcome those challenges in a wise and prudent way, but they should not be reasons for South Korea to shrink from taking on its growing responsibility as a global leader.

Professor Ramon Pacheco Pardo of King's College London said in his new book, "Shrimp to Whale," that South Korea is a "shrimp among whales no more," and "it has become a whale itself." As a corollary, he calls for a much stronger voice from South Korea in global and regional arenas, in collaboration with its partners as necessary. Whether you agree or not, such expectations are why the U.S. welcomed South Korea's participation in the IPEF and why NATO invited the Korean president to its summit for the first time in its history.

Yun Byung-se, former foreign minister of South Korea, is now a board member of the Korea Peace Foundation and a member of several ex-global leaders' forums and task forces, including the Astana Forum and its Consultative Council as well as the Task Force on U.S. Allies and Nuclear Weapons Proliferation sponsored by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.