India-Korea partnership charts a new course

At a time of profound shifts in £ global geopolitical and geo-economics landscape, His Excellency Lee Jae Myung, President of the Republic of Korea, paid a highly successful State Visit to India rom 19 to 21 April 2026, signaling the dawn of a new phase in the Korea-India Special Strategic Partnership.

- LEE SEONG-HO

He was accompanied by one of the largest-ever business delegations - comprising over 200 representatives of leading Korean companies, including the CEOs of Samsung, Hyundai, LG and POSCO.The delegation also included three cabinet Ministers, overseeing key portfolios of Finance & Economy and Science & Technology. The sheer size and distinguished composition of the presidential delegation alone underlines the importance Korea attaches to this crucial partnership with India, one of the most consequential relationships of the 21st century.

The visit took place at a critical juncture in global affairs, when the familiar contours of the global political and economic order are undergoing profound transformation. With supply chains being reconfigured and new economic alignments emerging, fresh avenues for cooperation are opening up.

India’s global stature today is markedly different from what it once was. Its standing as a rising global economic and strategic power continues to grow and its economy is firmly on course to become the world’s third largest economy very soon. At the same time, Korea continues to attract global attention through its K-wave soft power as well as its strengths in supply chains of world’s most critical industries such as semiconductors and shipbuilding.

Taken together, these factors create a strong synergy for expanded cooperation. Simply put, at a time of global flux, the two partners with huge potential for future cooperation have come together to harness their complementarities and convergences and to produce tangible outcomes for their respective peoples and the world at large.