South Korea’s Deepening Ties With Pacific Island States – The Diplomat

Seoul’s rapprochement with Tokyo and efforts to deepen trilateral cooperation between South Korea, Japan, and the USA has garnered a lot of the eye in South Korea’s international coverage this 12 months. Much less observed, nevertheless, have been Seoul’s efforts to deepen cooperation with the Pacific Island states.

Previous to the Yoon administration, diplomatic engagement between South Korea and the 14 Pacific Island states was minimal. Diplomatic engagement was restricted to the international minister and senior official ranges. Even these contacts consisted of solely 4 international minister stage conferences since 2011. 

South Korean assist to the area was equally sparse. Official improvement help (ODA) to Oceania, which incorporates the Pacific Island states together with Australia and New Zealand, accounted for 0.8 p.c of Seoul’s ODA, or simply $16.42 million, in 2021. Moreover, in accordance with information from the Korea Worldwide Cooperation Company, not one of the Pacific Island states was among the many prime 20 recipients of Korean ODA in 2021.

In distinction to prior administrations, the Yoon administration has labored to combine the area into its broader international coverage technique on the bilateral, trilateral, and regional stage. 

In late Could, South Korea hosted the primary Korea-Pacific Islands summit the place the leaders mentioned deepening cooperation within the areas of local weather change, catastrophe danger and resilience, sustainable improvement, and maritime affairs and fisheries. As a part of deepening cooperation and dialogue with the area, Seoul introduced that it could improve the variety of embassies it has within the area. It additionally dedicated to double by 2027 the event help it offers the Pacific states.

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The leaders additionally developed an motion plan targeted on resilience, reinforcement, and revitalization. The motion plan consists of commitments by South Korea to help the Pacific states with enhancing their local weather prediction methods, initially together with 5 states for local weather delicate sectors comparable to agriculture and water administration. Extra local weather associated initiatives embody working with the Pacific Island states on the event of inexperienced power initiatives, forest administration to assist forestall costal erosion and cope with storm surges, and bettering the area’s capability to observe ocean acidification. The motion plan moreover requires cooperation on capability constructing within the area and infectious illness administration.

The summit, though profitable, was overshadowed by nice energy competitors. Solomon Islands, which just lately established a brand new safety partnership with China, issued a separate assertion distancing itself from the general summit assertion. Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare stated that his nation wouldn’t have interaction in geopolitics. The foundation of the dispute was the inclusion of a reference to South Korea’s personal Indo-Pacific technique within the summit declaration. 

In its Indo-Pacific technique, South Korea requires deepening engagement with the Pacific Island international locations on local weather change, renewable power, healthcare, and oceans and fisheries points. This consists of the supply of inexperienced ODA initiatives to help the area’s low-carbon power transition. All these facets align with Korean commitments on the Pacific States summit in Seoul.

South Korea adopted up on the progress made in Seoul with a second assembly between Yoon and Pacific Island leaders, this time within the type of a luncheon on the sidelines of the United Nations Basic Meeting in New York. The assembly on September 22 introduced collectively the South Korean president and leaders from Prepare dinner Islands, Kiribati, Micronesia, Niue, Palau, the Republic of Marshall Islands, and Samoa, in addition to the secretary-general of the Pacific Islands Discussion board. 

Along with participating bilaterally, South Korea can be participating the states of the Pacific Islands with companions. Final 12 months, South Korea took half in a gathering of the Companions within the Blue Pacific, an initiative by the USA, Australia, Japan, and the UK to collaborate on regional improvement in Oceania guided by the Pacific Islands Discussion board’s 2050 Technique for the Blue Pacific Continent. South Korea has now joined the Companions within the Blue Pacific as a full companion and took half within the grouping’s second assembly this 12 months, which reached agreements to work with the Pacific Island states on pre-positioning humanitarian and emergency provides for the area, cybersecurity, and fishing and maritime area consciousness. 

Cooperation with the Pacific Island states can be a part of the renewed trilateral cooperation between the USA, South Korea, and Japan, exemplified by the summit at Camp David in August. There, the three leaders agreed to collaborate on strengthening regional structure, together with the Pacific Islands Discussion board, and to deal with maritime cooperation with the area. 

South Korea’s efforts to interact the Pacific Island states are nonetheless nascent; there’s extra that could possibly be finished to boost it. Whereas it’s commendable that Seoul intends to double its ODA to the area, there’s scope to additional improve that assist. A few of that improve may come although deeper cooperation in initiatives with the Companions within the Blue Pacific, however an extra improve in bilateral assist appears possible if coordinated with the area’s personal 2050 technique. 

With cooperation now embedded inside South Korea’s personal Indo-Pacific technique, the Companions within the Blue Pacific, and trilateral cooperation with the USA and Japan, the Pacific Island states will probably proceed to be a extra distinguished a part of Seoul’s international coverage within the years forward.