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The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) organised a virtual India-Japan-South Korea Trilateral Dialogue on the topic “India-Japan-South Korea: Promoting Peace, Prosperity and Stability in the Indo-Pacific Region” on June 15, 2023. The partner institutions included the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), the Japan Foundation, the Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA) and the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP).

Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director, VIF gave the opening remarks. Introductory remarks were also made by Ms. Tomiko Ichikawa, Director General, JIIA; Prof. Wongie Choe, Professor and Head of the Center for ASEAN-Indian Studies, KNDA; and Mr. Koji Sato, Director General, the Japan Foundation. The event had three sessions highlighting various dimensions of trilateral cooperation. Amb. Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa, Former Indian Ambassador to Japan, moderated the event. The speakers for the first session titled “Synergy in Security Cooperation” were made by Mr. Tetsuo Kotani, Senior Fellow, JIIA; Prof. Wondeuk Cho, Assistant Professor, Center for ASEAN-Indian Studies, KNDA; and Dr. Titli Basu, Associate Professor, Centre for East Asian Studies, JNU. In the second session titled “Emerging Economic Ties”, Dr. Kyunghoon Kim, Associate Research Fellow, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP); Mr. Kensuke Yanagida, Research Fellow, JIIA and ; Prof. Srabani Roy Choudhury, Chair, Centre for East Asian Studies, JNU gave their insights. Mr. Koji Sato and Amb. Skand Tayal, former Ambassador of India to South Korea spoke at the special concluding session on “Role of Soft Power in Enhancing Relations”. Dr. Arvind Gupta gave the concluding remarks. Mr. Seiichiro Taguchi, Minster-Political, Embassy of Japan; Mayu Arimoto, Second Secretary, Embassy of Japan; Mr. Ashok Kumar Chawla, Adviser (Japan), East Asia Division, MEA; Amb. Ashok Kantha, Dr. Udai Bhanu Singh, MP-IDSA; Vice-Admiral Satish Soni; Vice-Admiral A.B. Singh; Prof. Sujit Dutta; Brig. Vinod Anand; Gp. Cap. Naval Jagota; Dr. Sweta Kumari; Anurag Sharma and VIF interns also participated in the dialogue.

The discussion brought out the respective viewpoints of India, Japan and South Korea on dramatically changing geopolitical and geoeconomic scenarios in the Indo-Pacific region. The talk emphasised the impact of the Russia-Ukraine region on each of the countries and the region. The challenges in security and economic cooperation and ways to overcome them were highlighted. It was outlined that apart from traditional areas of collaboration, three counties can cooperate in domains such as semiconductors, critical and emerging technologies, and space.

Japan and South Korea also have civilisational and cultural ties with India. Soft power through Yoga, Anime and Korean pop is becoming an important tool in enhancing people-to-people connections between the three countries and it needs to be further promoted. In a nutshell, the dialogue outlined that India-Japan-South Korea, the three major democracies in the region can work together towards peace, stability, prosperity and a rule-based order in the region. In cooperation with other countries in Asia and the ASEAN, India-Japan-South Korea can also promote Asian values in terms of spirituality, universalism and conflict mitigation in the world.