New direction to India-Korea relations, Jaishankar stressed on increasing strategic partnership

Seoul. Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has called for taking the strategic, economic and technological partnership between India and South Korea to new heights. Addressing the Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity 2026 held in Jeju Island, he said that both the countries should expand the scope of cooperation in areas like shipbuilding, digital technology, health, infrastructure and defence.

Jaishankar said that economic and technological cooperation can be further strengthened by fully utilizing the potential existing between India and the Republic of Korea. He also stressed the need to increase people-to-people contacts along with political and strategic partnership. According to him, deeper cooperation between the two countries will be important for regional and global stability in the changing global scenario.

The Foreign Minister also expressed his views on the issue of global order and ‘Global South’. He said that influential countries should develop new cooperative mechanisms to solve global challenges. Challenges like pandemics, terrorism and climate change are not bound by borders, hence broad international cooperation is necessary to solve them. He advocated providing more opportunities and capabilities to developing countries, saying that global development will be balanced only when the interests of all countries are given equal importance.

On the sidelines of the forum, Jaishankar met several global leaders including Ban Ki-moon and Gombojaw Jandanshatar. Earlier, he held bilateral talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and discussed measures to strengthen trade, investment and financial cooperation. Both countries reiterated their commitment to further expand the partnership.