Make ties more contemporary’: Jaishankar says India, South Korea should focus on new areas like critical technologies, semiconductors

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday said that while India and South Korea have maintained momentum in traditional areas of cooperation, the two countries should now focus on expanding to new areas including critical and emerging technologies, semiconductors and green hydrogen “to make the bilateral ties more contemporary”.

Addressing the 10th India-South Korea Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) with his counterpart Cho Tae-yul in Seoul, Jaishankar said, “While keeping up the momentum in the traditional areas of cooperation, we would be very much interested now in expanding it to new areas, such as critical and emerging technologies, semiconductors, green hydrogen, human resource mobility, nuclear cooperation, supply chain resilience, etc, to make our ties more contemporary.”

He said India and South Korea have grown from strength to strength in the years gone by and have become important partners for each other.

“And our bilateral exchanges – trade, investments, defence, and S&T cooperation, have all seen steady growth,” he added.

Taking to X after the JCM, Jaishankar said that the meeting covered expanded bilateral ties, cooperation in the field of defence, science & technology, business & trade, people-to-people exchange and cultural cooperation.

“Co-chaired with @FMChoTae_yul a comprehensive and productive 10th – Joint Commission Meeting in Seoul today. Conversations covered our expanded bilateral ties, cooperation in the field of defence, science & technology, business & trade, people to people exchange and cultural cooperation. Also spoke of advancing trilateral cooperation,” Jaishankar wrote on X.