“Both sides shared the opinion that, above all, there is a need to enhance economic cooperation through the promotion of trade and investment and expand the institutional frameworks to that end..….. They also concurred that sharing South Korea’s expertise and technology could expedite the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), thereby contributing to Africa’s economic development.” the South Korean Foreign Ministry Statement.
On 4th and 5th of June 2024, Africa and South Korea will hold a first joint Summit in Seoul. The Summit aims at fostering better-structured bilateral cooperation and strengthening the partnership between the two sides. The Summit will be jointly co-hosted by South Korea and Mauritius with the theme “The Future We Make Together: Shared Growth, Sustainability, and Solidarity”.
The Summit follows the launching of President Yoon Suk Yeol, foreign policy of making the Republic of Korea (RoK) “The Global Pivotal State (GPS)”. The GPS policy aims to create a country capable of altering the distribution of power creating or maintaining stability within the international political order and expanding networks and cooperation with like-minded nations that share South Korea’s identity, values, and strategic cooperation. By becoming so, RoK has to strengthen its economic, trade, military, and global cultural influence.
Walk the Talk
Korea and NATO Partnership
By defining its policy, in 2022 the RoK and NATO launched a new partnership program aimed at strengthening cooperation in areas such as arms control, counterterrorism, and cyber-defense while President Yoon Suk Yeol became the first South Korean president to attend a NATO Summit and in the same year Seoul opened its diplomatic mission to NATO in Brussels. South Korea also became the first East Asian country to join a NATO Centre of Excellence and started increased consultations with NATO’s military staff.
“The Republic of Korea is a longstanding Partner of NATO. The signature of the renewed Individual Tailored Partnership Program and the subsequent military implementation plan underlines the strong commitment of both NATO and Korea to support each other.” – stressed Major General Șerban, the Director of the NATO Cooperative Security Division at the RoK and NATO Meeting in Brussels.
Seoul aims to build a comprehensive security network with NATO allies in such a way that it could involve not only military but also economic and human security, including climate change and supply chain challenges. The new partnership also aims at retaliating against its fierce rival, North Korea who has been blaming the Seoul and Washington administrations for conducting war manoeuvers and holding military drills with greater intensity and scale. Recently, when the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un visited the country’s main military university he was reported saying “Now it’s the time to be thoroughly prepared for a war than ever….if provoked, North Korea will deal a death blow to the enemy without hesitation by mobilizing all means in its possession”.
North Korea stands between the GPS and its success, for the full successful implementation of the Policy, NATO has to ensure the Seoul administrative is at peace against its “principal enemy” Pyongyang.
The Korean-Pacific Islands Summit
In 2023, Seoul hosted the first Korean-Pacific Islands Summit. The Summit focused on expanding cooperation between regional states in areas such as security, climate change, sustainable development, technological innovation, and health security.
During the summit, Seoul committed to double down the official development assistance (ODA) to $40 million by 2027, providing high concessional loans, including reviewing the New Papua Guinea port project, enforcing green energy projects in the Solomon Island, Fiji and the Marshall Islands also improve the ICT connectivity and supporting infrastructure development.
RoK policy in the Pacific is defined as the counter-Sino-Pacific influence within the region. Recently, there has been a rapid growth of China’s influence in Pacific states beginning from the strategic airstrip of Kiribati, an island nation located just 2,100 km from Hawaii to Papua New Guinea, an Island located 2,369 Km from Australia; a country considered by the U.S as a Military ally. In Kiribati, the Sino influence is considered more military as it was recently reported that Chinese Police officers “provide security assistance” to Kiribati police officers in what was termed as community policing and on a crime database program. This comes shortly after the U.S. lawmakers reportedly growing concerns about the U.S. losing ground to China in a country considered by the U.S. as its “balcony”.
In 2022, China signed a security pact with Solomon Island, a deal that would allow Beijing to send military and police personnel within the Pacific country. China has also been providing the Constituency Development Fund (FDC), a fund that has been highly criticized as a bribe to Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s administration to influence parliamentarians to pursue the “Beijing Agenda”.
Considering the Korea-Pacific States Summit’s aims and outcome; it may be clearly defined as a plan to counter Chinese influence but also substitute the U.S. power in the region. “The Strategy for a Free, Peaceful and Prosperous Indo-Pacific Region” by President Yoon has just begun.
Seoul can benefit from strengthening ties with the Pacific states in terms of accessing raw materials, and diplomatic support but also shape the future course of South Korea’s emerging grand strategy of becoming a global player.
Korea-Africa Summit
“Africa is a key partner for Korea in realizing its foreign policy aspiration of becoming a Global Pivotal State”, President Yoon.
There is a huge difference and impact between the Korea-Pacific Island Summit with the Korea-Africa Summit. Africa, home of 1.4 Billion people with a GDP of 3.1 trillion U.S dollars and vast natural resources signifies a strategic position in the Korean economy. It’s clear, that Korea needs more of Africa than vice versa. Africa contributes 3 percent of Korean exports and 1 percent of its imports.
This year, RoK joins the UN Security Council (UNSC) as a non-permanent member of the 2024-25 term together with Japan, Switzerland, Ecuador, Guyana, Mozambique, Malta, Sierra Leone, Algeria, and Slovenia. As a new NATO partner, RoK is expected to hold a significant card in the UNSC. Through RoK in UNSC, Africa should push the agenda of withdrawing sanctions which include freezing of assets, travel bans, and arms embargo in South Sudan, a move that has not achieved its targeted goal of promoting peace and stability since July 2018; instead, it should begin working in achieving a permanent solution to a peace in South Sudan and the horn of Africa especially in the eastern part of DRC. Africa should begin to use its potential as a bargaining chip for its sustainability and welfare.
Cho Tae-yul, chairperson of the Korea-Africa Summit Preparatory Commission and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of RoK declared President Yoon’s summit target. These targets are the desire to work with Africa in transmitting RoK into a global pivotal state. The second is its interest in joining the “scramble” for resources in Africa and the last is the trade opportunity of RoK in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
What has Africa declared so far, it’s still unknown as each country approaches Seoul with its own “hidden agenda” in each President’s bag. Recently it was reported on how Kenya jumped ahead in the scramble to attract South Korean investors by marketing itself as the top investment destination in Africa at a pre-summit, two weeks before the Korea-Africa Summit. Kenya offered Korean investors the opportunity to explore market entry strategies into Africa through AfCFTA. Ironically, since the launch of AfCFTA in 2012 only eight out of 55 countries (Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Tunisia) have signed the preliminary inter-trade cooperation agreement, the AfCFTA Guided Trade Initiative (GTI), and Kenya is not among the mentioned countries. The AfCFTA is only being “used” by African countries as a foreign investment trap.
So far, the intra-Africa cooperation is at 14.4%, while UNECA projects it to reach 33.5% by the year 2045. From this, it may be concluded that inter-trade cooperation is going at a very slow pace.
Africa should attend the summit with the collective agenda instead of scrambling to be utilized. Africa should open up her eyes and see before it’s too late.
