▶ Korea’s New Southern Policy and India’s Act East Policy are converging in the defence field.

▶ There are a few high-technology Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) between the two countries. Of late, cyber security has become a much-needed arena of cooperation.

▶ Korea’s technology prowess will be useful for India’s vision of modernizing its arms and becoming a manufacturing hub.

The political geographers of the contemporary era have located two important Asian countries—India and Korea—in two perceptibly distinct unnatural regions connected with China, but hardly interacting with each other to shape the destiny of Asia. On the other hand, historians and cultural writers highlight an ancient, marital link between the two countries. One of the Korean princes was married to an Indian Princess. In 1929, Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore in a publication in the Korean daily “Dong-A-llbo” called Korea “The Lamp of the East.”

Interestingly, the Independence Day of both India and Korea falls on August 15, though both countries gained their independence over a gap of two years. The Republic of Korea gained it in 1945 and India in 1947. The nine-member United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea, constituted to ensure the democratic transition of Korea, was headed by an Indian. The medical wing of the Indian armed forces contributed to medical services in the Korean War.

Gradually, in the 21st century, the two countries are realizing the need to enhance their ties to a higher level. In the first half of September 2023, South Korea is coming to participate in the G-20 summit in Delhi and before the East Asia Summit in Jakarta. India and Korea are members of the both groupings. One of the writers on the subject has dubbed India and Korea as two of the six sizzling markets. In recent years, both countries have been striving for a Special Strategic Partnership, which has resulted in intense bilateral cooperation in several significant areas, most notably, high technology joint development, bilateral cooperation in semiconductor and Information Technology, and so on. 

India and Korea are also exploring the areas of defence cooperation. In the realm of arms, for a long period, India was overwhelmingly dependent on the Soviet Union/Russia. The dependence has not gone completely, but it has assiduously worked to cut down the dependence. For this purpose, it has diversified the sources of its arms procurement. The United States and a few European countries, such as France and Germany, have been supplying arms to India. India’s indigenous defence production, though of a smaller scale, is also adding to the mixed supply base. 

The two Asian technology giants—Korea and Japan—for many years were not important players in the arms business. Of late, both have raised their stakes in the global arms business, though Japan still has quite restrictive regulations for arms supply. Even though Korea has a strict regulatory mechanism, it hogged the global limelight for being acknowledged as a supplier for Ukraine in the ongoing war. Korea did supply some arms to Ukraine but apparently, the regulatory as well as geopolitical factors have made it control the supply to the country. But it has been emerging as a major supplier in recent years. The SIPRI’s database lists twelve countries, which have received armaments from South Korea.  

The Hanwha is a South Korean defence industry which has entered the global arms bazaar and is planning to expand its market. It is selling K9 howitzers, which have grabbed 55 percent of the global trade in the self-propelled howitzer export market, to some new buyers like India, Estonia, Finland and Norway. It has also sold other weapons such as K-2 tanks, FA-50 jets, and Chunmoo rocket launchers to Poland. Analysts maintain that South Korea has been banking on the so-called “midlevel weapons like artillery, armoured vehicles and tanks, and accumulated competitive technologies.” 

Similarly, another South Korean company, Hanwha, (formerly Korea Explosives) specialises in radar systems, aircraft engines, bomb-disposal robots, unmanned combat vehicles, and antiaircraft guns among other strategic systems. It is also collaborating with Korea’s space programme. These are basically a couple of examples to exhibit the growing prowess of the Korean defence industry. 

Quite remarkably, India and Korea are finding a common ground in defence as well. Korea’s Indo-Pacific Strategy and India’s Act East Policy are converging in the defence field. Already high-level interactions are taking place between the two countries. The 2013 Defence Policy Dialogue has now become the part of strategic '2+2 Dialogue, in which defence ministers of the two countries also take part. In 2021, the defence ministers of the two countries inaugurated the Indo-Korean Friendship Park in Delhi.

A roadmap for defence industry cooperation has been shared between the two countries. The Government of India press release lists some of the items which are featured on the roadmap. These are:  “Land Systems, Naval Systems, Aero Systems, Guided Weapon Systems including research and development cooperation, collaboration regarding testing, certification and quality assurance.” The Korea-India  Agreement on the Protection of Classified Military Information already exists. There are a few high-technology Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) between the two countries. Of late, cyber security has become a much-needed arena of cooperation. The concerned bodies of the two countries have signed a MOU for this purpose. 

Korea has been participating in different defence exhibitions and expos in India. In these events, the Korean industry has been attracting appreciation for its products and technologies. The Indian armed forces have also demonstrated considerable interest in Korean defence products. Korea’s Original Equipment Manufacturers, medium, small, and micro Industries along with big companies have been quite active. The Indian government has a policy of giving a special treatment to the Korean defence industry in these defence exhibitions. 

India wants Korea to become a partner in its policy of defence development. India’s current defence minister expressed hope that ‘collaboration, cooperation, co-production and co-development' will be the salient features of the India-Korea defence relationship. It wants a Win-Win situation for the two countries. The government of India is interested in Korea’s investment in its plan to emerge as a manufacturing hub of defence equipment. India’s Make in India Initiative is expected to get solid support from the Korean defence industry.

The defence cooperation between the two countries is also manifested in areas such as training and joint exercises. Military officers of both countries are sharing experience of training institutions. In this regard, the most significant area could be maritime security in which both countries have started working. Considering the persisting tension in East Asia and Indo-Pacific, training and joint exercises may help in interoperability if a crisis arises in the future. 

Similarly, India and Korea face security issues from the countries which are involved in the proliferation network. All the countries involved in the proliferation network are also modernizing their nuclear arsenals. Although the two countries share some common multilateral platforms, bilateral cooperation especially in information exchange would be highly useful. Separately, India and Korea can keep working to strengthen the efforts for nuclear disarmament. 

Information exchange on the proliferation network will also help fighting against terrorism, violent extremism, transnational organized crime involved in human trafficking, money laundering, and many such heinous crimes. Emerging technology, which is otherwise considered a boon, may become a bane if it falls into the wrong hands. 

Thus, in managing, countering and eliminating all the existing and emerging security challenges, India is increasingly looking toward cooperating with South Korea. In East Asia, as in Indo-Pacific, India needs to work closely with Korea. Korea’s technology prowess will be useful for India’s vision of modernizing its arms and becoming a manufacturing hub. Together the two countries may envision security of Asia, and hopefully, the world.