The meeting of the India-South Korea Joint Commission in Seoul on Friday will consider expanding trade and business ties, cooperation in the defence sector and explore a civilian nuclear agreement.
External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna leaves here for Seoul on Thursday on a three-day visit. He will meet his counterpart Yu Myung-hwan and Defence Minister Kim Tae-young, address the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security and call on President Lee Myung-bak.
Spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs Vishnu Prakash said on Wednesday that some agreements were likely to be concluded after the talks. India and South Korea identified a number of high priority areas. These included IT, and knowledge-based industries, science and technology, high-technology, energy, automobiles and components, small and medium enterprises, defence, space, cultural ties, parliamentary and people-to-people exchanges.
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Bilateral trade stood at $15 billion during 2008, and the two countries decided to double it by 2014. India and South Korea signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in August last and it became operational in January.
“Civil nuclear cooperation will be discussed during the meeting. We do not know the direction it would take, but we will have something at the end of the meeting,” Gautam Bambawale, Joint Secretary (East Asia), said.
As for cooperation in the defence sector, he said that while the Coast Guards of both countries signed a memorandum of understanding in 2006, efforts were on to step up cooperation between the Navies in anti-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean region and the Gulf of Aden.
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To promote cultural relations and people-to-people contacts, Mr. Prakash said a Festival of India would be organised in South Korea in 2011.