‘India is a stakeholder in Korean peace process’
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said India is a stakeholder in the peace process in the Korean peninsula after he held wide-ranging deliberations with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that focused on deepening strategic cooperation between the two countries.
The two countries agreed to significantly enhance cooperation in a range of areas including defence and security, artificial intelligence, trade besides resolving to work together for regional peace and prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The two countries inked a total of 10 agreements covering a broad spectrum of areas for cooperation and signed a document to facilitate negotiations to upgrade the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
At a joint media event with Moon, Modi indirectly referred to North Korea’s proliferation linkages with Pakistan and that it was a reason why India is a stakeholder in the peace process.
“During our talks, I told President Moon that proliferation linkages between NorthEast Asia and South Asia are a matter of concern to India. Therefore, India is also a stakeholder in the peace process. We will do our bit to ensure peace,” Modi said in his press statement.
India has been pressing for a probe into North Korea’s nuclear proliferation linkages with Pakistan and demanded that those responsible for it should be held accountable.
The two sides also released a vision document articulating ways to boost their strategic cooperation and reaffirming convergence of their views in dealing with maritime conflicts, in an explicit reference to China’s expansionist behaviour in critical sea lanes.
NEW DELHI: India and South Korea signed 11 agreements on Tuesday to expand business ties and more than double mutual trade to $50 billion by 2030, a day after the premiers of the two countries launched a Samsung mobile phone factory near Delhi.
Major South Korean companies including Samsung and Hyundai Motor Co are household names across India, one of the world's fastest growing markets, and visiting South
Korean President Moon Jae-in said he hoped that smaller companies from his country could replicate that success.
"Going forward I hope that more Korean companies will invest in India so that the foundation for mutual prosperity can be further expanded," Moon said after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the third day of his four-day visit.
Bilateral trade between the world's seventh and 11th largest economies rose by nearly a quarter to $20.8 billion in the 2017/18 fiscal year that ended in March, with $16.4 billion of that in favour of South Korea.
The agreements signed between the countries included accelerating negotiations to upgrade a 'comprehensive economic partnership agreement' signed in 2009, as well as expand cooperation in railways, healthcare, telecommunications and cyber security.
They also agreed to explore tripartite partnership for development in third countries, beginning with capacity building programmes in Afghanistan. India already has close ties with Afghanistan and is helping to rebuild the warravaged country.
Moon and Modi on Monday formally opened a new Samsung factory on the outskirts of Delhi which the company called the world's biggest mobile phone manufacturing plant.
The plant's inauguration comes at a time when Modi, who faces an election next year, is trying to create new jobs for millions of Indians who join the workforce every year.
In an apparent endorsement of Modi's electoral prospects, Moon said he would eagerly await the Indian leader's visit to South Korea in 2020. Modi, in turn, credited Moon for South Korea's peace breakthrough with North Korea and offered India's support in taking that forward.