India-Korea Connections in the Indo-Pacific

India‑Korea Connections in the Indo‑Pacific presents multidimensional aspects of the Special Strategic Relationship between the Republic of Korea (ROK) and India, ranging from security, diplomacy, trade and FDI, and people‑to‑people exchanges. It analyses the India‑Korea partnership and its strategic implications and potential in the Indo‑Pacific.

Bringing together experts from both India and the ROK, this book situates the partnership in the context of the current geopolitical landscape in the Indo‑Pacific, particularly the increasingly intensifying US‑China rivalry and the post‑pandemic and geo‑economic fragmentation caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In this context, the chapters explore how the ROK and India as middle powers can strengthen the bilateral relationship between India and ROK and then work together within a host of existing minilateral and multilateral architectures in the Indo‑Pacific for a rule‑based international order embracing security and diplomacy, supply chain resilience, and cross‑border FDI and trade cooperation as evident in Quad, IPEF, RCEP, CPTPP, DEPA. This book is a unique collaboration between experts across various domains from both countries, and it presents a new take on the India‑ROK bilateral relationship as a middle power axis in the Indo‑Pacific.

Presenting action‑oriented policy recommendations for ROK and India to pursue an upgradation of the existing ROK‑India Special Strategic Partnership, this book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of Asian/Indo‑Pacific studies, international relations and political science, looking to understand the India‑Korea partnership and its strategic implications and potential in the Indo‑Pacific, and policy analysts and professionals working in think tanks and research institutions, focused on foreign and security dynamics in the Indo‑Pacific.

Jagannath Panda is the Head of the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo‑Pacific Affairs (SCSA‑IPA) at the ISDP, Sweden. He is also a Professor in the Department of Regional and Global Studies at the University of Warsaw, Poland, and a Senior Fellow at The Hague Center for Strategic Studies in the Netherlands. He is the Series Editor for Routledge Studies on Think Asia.

Choong Yong Ahn is a Distinguished Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies at Chung‑Ang University, South Korea. He served as President of the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, Chair of the APEC Economic Committee, Foreign Investment Ombudsman, Co‑chair of the Presidential Regulatory Reform Committee, and Chairman of the Korea Commission of Corporate Partnership and has written extensively on East Asian economic integration and comparative development models. His book, South Korea and Foreign Direct Investment: Policy Dynamics and Aftercare Ombudsman, has just been published by Routledge.