Crossroads Asia

Due south Korean President Moon Travels Beyond Central Asia

Moon took the long fashion dwelling house from the United states of america, spending eight days visiting Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

South Korean President Moon Travels Across Central Asia

Credit: Facebook / Korea.net

On his manner dorsum from the United States, South Korean President Moon Jae-in spent eight days traveling across Cardinal Asia. With visits to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, Moon took the long way home. While Central Asia is a distant partner for South Korea, it's a growing market for S Korean technology and hungry to diversify its partnerships. In recent years, the region has turned its attention more deliberately to regional cooperation, generating an opening for states like South korea to brand inroads.

In Turkmenistan, Moon met with analogue, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on April 17. According to the South Korean readout , the 2 presidents announced plans to heave cooperation in the energy and infrastructure sectors. Six memorandums of understanding were signed betwixt the two sides, and Moon announced that a co-operative of Male monarch Sejong Institute would be set up in Turkmenistan. The government-run Male monarch Sejong Institutes offer Korean classes and have branches already established in all the other Central Asian states.

The 2 presidents also commented on the completion concluding twelvemonth of the state-operated Kiyanly Petrochemical Circuitous, which cost approximately $3.4 billion . The complex was built by a global consortium which included Korean giants Hyundai Engineering science and LG, every bit well as Japan'southward Toyo Engineering and Ashgabat borrowed from Nihon Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the Export–Import Bank of Korea to finance construction. The underlying agreements had been signed in 2014, when then- South Korea President Park Geun-hye was the first S Korean leader to make a state visit to isolated Turkmenistan.

Side by side, Moon traveled to Uzbekistan. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev made a state visit to Republic of korea in November 2017, i of his outset trips beyond the immediate Central Asian neighborhood. Moon'southward visit to Uzbekistan, which lasted April 18-21, included a visit non just to the capital Tashkent, only Samarkand likewise. The two countries also appear the upgrading of their relationship to a " special strategic partnership ," a step up from the "strategic partnership" announced in 2006 .

One headline item from Moon'south Uzbekistan stop was a package of deals reportedly worth $12 billion. Though specifics are thin, the two leaders mentioned the broad range of sectors in which the two countries cooperate, from energy to healthcare, science engineering science, and more than. Moon besides noted that the two countries would work toward concluding a Korea-Uzbekistan FTA, to build upon burgeoning merchandise betwixt them. Uzbekistan and South Korea have strong economic relations, with Seoul ranking amongst Uzbekistan's top five sources of imports (coming in later People's republic of china, Russia, and Kazakhstan). Uzbekistan hosts several vehicle production facilities, most critically GM Uzbekistan, which was originally established equally a articulation Uzbek government and Daewoo facility. Although ownership changes (and the collapse of Daewoo) altered the name, the underlying relationships remain. The bulk of Uzbekistan's imports from Southward Korea are vehicle parts.

In an accost to the Uzbek legislature , Moon waxed poetic well-nigh the history and future of linkages between Uzbekistan and S Korea: "On my style here, I imagined a day ane,500 years ago. That was the day when envoys from an ancient Korean kingdom arrived in Samarkand." Referring to the idea to constitute a operation rails organisation from South korea to Central Asia equally the "Fe Silk Road" of the 21st Century. "Doesn't just the thought of information technology make your eye bound?" he said.

Moon's last cease in Central Asia was Republic of kazakhstan where he met with interim President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev but besides reportedly held a separate meeting with Nursultan Nazarbayev. Moon's visit, from April 21 to 23, was overshadowed by domestic Kazakh politics. On Apr 23, Tokayev was named by Nazarbayev'due south political party, Nur Otan, as their candidate fro the snap presidential elections set for June 9. It'southward nearly unfathomable for anyone only Tokayev to win the ballot.

The visit marked the 10th anniversary of the strategic partnership between South korea and Republic of kazakhstan, and Moon commented that bilateral trade doubled between 2017 and 2018, up to $iv billion. The two sides agreed to deepen relations under the "Fresh Wind New Economical Programme," which according to Kazakh media covers infrastructure development, agriculture, healthcare, and culture. Details were few.

A S Korean president can't go to Kazakhstan without talking nearly denuclearization. Republic of kazakhstan, at the moment it became independent in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, hosted a portion of the Soviet nuclear arsenal, also every bit significant testing facilities. The Soviet Union conducted 456 nuclear tests in Semipalatinsk from 1949 until 1989. Nazarbayev decided to give up the country's inherited nuclear weapons, a determination which Republic of korea appreciates deeply in light of Democratic people's republic of korea'due south nuclear development. It gives Republic of kazakhstan a unique weight when discussing denuclearization, though Republic of kazakhstan has not featured equally a major negotiator when it comes to Democratic people's republic of korea.

According to a South Korean presidential administration official quoted in The Korea Times , "President Moon told Nazarbayev that Kazakhstan's decision to voluntarily dismantle its nuclear weapons will help the ongoing inter-Korean peace process. How the determination contributed to bringing peace in Cardinal Asia and helped the country rise as one of the leading economies in the region were additional bug discussed at the meeting."

For u.s. of Central Asia and Due south Korea, each seeking to diversify their partnerships, the other represents a distant, merely worthwhile partner. South Korea, in particular, has fit Central Asia into the long arc of its New Northern Policy. The policy aims to boost Republic of korea's relations — economic and political — with its northern neighbors, starting near chiefly and by geographic necessity, with North Korea, then Russian federation and through Central Asia on to Europe. In a style, it echos Beijing'southward Belt and Road Initiative at a smaller scale but with a broader framing and far less geopolitical baggage.

The centerpiece, for South Korea, is the vision Moon mentioned in his remarks to the Uzbek legislature: a railroad connectedness through the Korean Peninsula and beyond. A " Silk Road of steel ," as Moon named it in a Facebook post before leaving Central Asia. "Our future is to open an era of the Silk Road of steel with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan," the post reads, "The results of this three-nation bout will be utilized to maintain our economic vitality."

In more immediate and practical terms, South Korea is seeking to invest in developing relations with several high-tech sectors similar digital health intendance and 5G technology which Primal Asia, by necessity, needs external partners. In these areas, South Korean companies may compete with Chinese offerings, but again, with far less geopolitical baggage and in some areas far better reputations. In total, the South Korean regime reports that Moon "obtained guarantees" from the three Central Asian states he visited for 24 projects (v in Turkmenistan, 15 in Uzbekistan and four in Kazakhstan) wirth $thirteen billion.