High-Level Korea-India Policy Consultation... Request for Interest and Support for the 'Korean Peninsula Peace Process'

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] On the 7th, Ham Sang-wook, Director-General for Multilateral Diplomacy Coordination at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, held the "1st Korea-India High-Level Global Issues Policy Consultation" via video conference with Viney Kumar, Deputy Secretary (International Organizations) of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

Through this consultation, both Korea and India broadly discussed mutual interests on major international issues including △India's plans for its 2021-2022 term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, △key agendas of the UN Security Council including the Korean Peninsula issue, △preparations for Korea's hosting of the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial Meeting in December this year, and △recent challenges to multilateralism and future prospects.

The Korean side requested India's continued interest and support as a new Security Council member regarding the Korean Peninsula peace process, while the Indian side evaluated the efforts of the Korean government so far and expressed a desire to maintain close communication and cooperation between the two countries at the UN and other forums.

Additionally, the Korean side noted that over 600 military and police personnel are currently deployed to five UN peacekeeping operations (PKO) units, and that Korea ranks 10th worldwide in terms of its UN PKO budget contribution. They requested active participation and cooperation from India, a major contributor in the peacekeeping field, to ensure the success of the "2021 UN Peacekeeping Ministerial Meeting" hosted by Korea in early December this year.

The Indian side stated that as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for 2021-2022, it will focus on issues such as △counter-terrorism, △peacekeeping and peacebuilding, and △maritime security. Furthermore, both sides agreed to regularize high-level policy consultations following this first global issues policy consultation.

A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official explained, "This 1st consultation served as an opportunity to strengthen the multilateral cooperation foundation between the two countries by establishing a separate consultation channel on multilateral issues with India, a new non-permanent member of the Security Council," adding, "As part of preparations for Korea's 2024-2025 term as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to continue bilateral consultations with Security Council members going forward."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.