President Lee Jae Myung talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after a welcoming ceremony for Lee at India’s presidential palace in New Delhi, Monday. Yonhap
NEW DELHI — President Lee Jae Myung and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed Monday on cooperation in strategic sectors such as artificial intelligence (AI), shipbuilding, maritime industries and defense.
The agreement came during their bilateral summit in New Delhi, where they discussed a range of issues to elevate their relations to better grapple with the rapidly changing global order and business environment.
The summit took place during Lee's three-day state visit to India. It was the first state visit to India in eight years by a Korean president, following the previous one by then-President Moon Jae-in in 2018.
The two leaders identified new areas of collaboration including software, finance, cultural content and climate change, in addition to manufacturing where cooperation has so far been concentrated.
They also addressed practical issues affecting citizens’ lives, such as easing travel procedures between the two countries, residence-related matters for Korean nationals and promoting cultural and people-to-people exchanges through the expansion of K-content and Korean language education.
The summit also dealt with measures to improve the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement signed between the two countries in 2009, laying the groundwork for achieving a bilateral trade volume of $50 billion by 2030.
Korea regards India as a central partner in advancing its so-called Global South diplomacy.
With the world’s largest population of 1.4 billion, the fourth-largest economy globally and robust annual growth of over 6 percent, India is regarded as a leading country in the Global South, a term referring to developing countries, many of them in the Southern Hemisphere as well as other regions, which share significant growth potential.
India is also seen as crucial to Lee’s pragmatic, interest-driven foreign policy amid the growing fragmentation of the global order, as well as to energy security considerations in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Source: Korea Times News
