South Korea - South Korea Sees a Bright Future with ASEAN

South Korea recently announced plans to open a diplomatic mission at the headquarters of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta. In an email interview, David Arase, a professor of politics at Pomona College, discussed South Korea-ASEAN relations.

WPR: What has brought about South Korea’s renewed interest in improving ties with ASEAN?

David Arase: For South Korea’s future, ASEAN encompasses a region second only to Northeast Asia in geopolitical and economic importance. ASEAN is also a key agenda-setter in East Asian cooperation. So Korea is stepping up its diplomatic game with this important regional grouping.

The ASEAN Plus Three (APT) summit brings the leaders of ASEAN, China, South Korea and Japan together as a group. APT has an active economic cooperation agenda of which the keystone is the $240 billion Chiangmai multilateral currency swap arrangement. The ASEAN-hosted East Asian Summit (EAS) adds the leaders of India, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, and the U.S. to the APT group. In 2011, EAS became the forum in which China’s maritime disputes with its neighbors were discussed. ASEAN hosts the 27-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which addresses confidence building and preventive diplomacy in the region, as well as the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM+). Defense ministers from ASEAN, plus those of the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand attended this meeting in 2010, and it will reconvene in 2013.

WPR: What are the main areas of cooperation and conflict between South Korea and ASEAN?

Arase: Their interests tend to be parallel and complementary. Regarding third parties: the U.S. should stay involved in the region; China should continue its rise but peacefully solve its maritime disputes according to the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea; North Korea should denuclearize; Japan should stay engaged in regional cooperation; India is a welcome cooperation partner. Global economic governance needs reform. Sea-lane security should be cooperatively maintained.

Bilaterally, ASEAN is South Korea’s third-largest trade partner, third-largest investment destination and second-largest construction market. The ASEAN-South-Korea free trade agreement (FTA) dates from 2009, though its full impact has yet to be felt. South Korea lacks food, mineral, and energy resources, and wage costs are high by Asian standards. ASEAN consists mostly of resource-rich countries, with 700 million people earning on average only one-sixth as much as South Koreans. Investment in resource development and production in ASEAN will fuel South Korean growth well into the future. Moreover, ASEAN will be a great consumer market for South Korean products. Forecasting growth to 2030, Goldman Sachs puts Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines in the world’s top five performers(.pdf).

WPR: How do relations with ASEAN fit into South Korea’s wider foreign policy priorities?

Arase: ASEAN can help South Korea manage China’s rise, reinforce regional economic and strategic stability, work toward an East Asian FTA and reform governance at the global level. However, ASEAN, like South Korea, can only set agendas and guide regional events if great power rivalries can be contained and cooperation remains uppermost on the regional agenda.

http://blog.aseankorea.org/

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