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Korea-India Strategic Dialogue Symposium

- Date: Thursday 13 November, 2025
- Venue: Seoul National University (223 Woosuk Economics Hall, International Conference Room 504)
- Co-hosts: SNU Institute for Future Strategy, Embassy of India

Symposium Overview
The Korea–India Strategic Dialogue Symposium brought together experts to explore how Seoul and New Delhi can deepen cooperation across defense, artificial intelligence, and supply chain resilience at a time of accelerating global uncertainty. The first session highlighted the growing strategic necessity of Korea–India defense collaboration amid intensifying great-power rivalry, calling for clearer convergence on maritime security, defense manufacturing, inter-operability, and emerging technologies. The second session examined how both countries can align their distinct AI strategies to promote inclusive development and manage the future of work, leveraging Korea’s hardware leadership and India’s talent and digital infrastructure while safeguarding against inequality, governance gaps, and automation risks. The final session underscored the imperative of building resilient supply chains—particularly for critical minerals and advanced manufacturing—through complementary strengths, joint investment models, and multi-node Indo-Pacific production networks. Together, the discussions outlined a coherent roadmap for a future-oriented Korea–India partnership rooted in shared democratic values, regional stability, and sustainable innovation.

Session 1: Forging Strategic Shields – Defense Cooperation in a Fraying Security Order
Professor Harsh Vardhan Pant
Vice President, Foreign Policy, Observer Research Foundation New Delhi
Prof. Pant emphasized that Korea–India defense cooperation has become a strategic necessity in an Indo-Pacific shaped by great-power rivalry and uncertainty about U.S. commitments. While both countries share broad security concerns, he noted that their specific areas of convergence—particularly on maritime security, threat perception, and crisis management—require clearer articulation. Practical cooperation remains underdeveloped in inter-operability, defense manufacturing, and emerging technologies, and Korea must clarify its strategic role in the Indian Ocean framework. He argued that combining Korea’s technological capabilities with India’s expanding industrial base could enable both countries to build a more resilient, future-ready defense partnership.

Professor Wooyeal Paik
Professor, Department of Political Science and International Studies, Yonsei University
Prof. Paik framed bilateral defense cooperation within a “New Cold War” environment defined by geopolitical fragmentation and expanding security convergences across regions and technological domains. He highlighted that Korea and India share complementary interests but lack a fully articulated framework for cooperation, especially in military coordination, economic security, and emerging technologies. With the rise of the North Korea–Russia–China nexus and the fusion of political, economic, and technological security, he argued that a more structured and forward-looking partnership is needed to build credible “strategic shields” that enhance resilience for both countries.

Session 2: AI for Inclusive Development and the Future of Work
Professor Balaraman Ravindran
Head, Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Prof. Ravindran presented India’s emerging AI governance framework, emphasizing trust, transparency, fairness, and accountable innovation as foundational principles. He described an ecosystem-focused model involving expanded compute access, culturally relevant datasets, agile regulation, and capacity building across government and society. India’s approach integrates risk classification, incident reporting, and graded accountability across the AI value chain, aiming to align innovation with public interest. He stressed the need for long-term institutional stewardship to ensure that AI development remains safe, inclusive, and internationally interoperable.

Dr. Siddharth Yadav
Fellow, Technology, Observer Research Foundation Middle East
Dr. Yadav compared Korea’s top-down, productivity-driven AI strategy with India’s bottom-up, inclusion-focused approach, noting that both countries face distinct challenges—from demographic decline and job disruption in Korea to informality and infrastructure gaps in India. He highlighted the complementarities between hardware-rich Korea and talent-rich India, proposing cooperation pathways such as joint certifications, talent mobility, shared standards for AI governance, and a bilateral data commons. He argued that a values-based partnership centered on democratic principles and broad-based inclusion can help both countries shape a more equitable AI-enabled future of work.

Professor Young Jung Geum
Associate Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering, Seoul National University
Prof. Geum examined AI as a driver of corporate and industrial transformation, emphasizing its growing role in manufacturing, logistics, and innovation processes such as the fuzzy front end of product development. She warned, however, that AI can exacerbate inequalities between large firms and SMEs due to disparities in data access, infrastructure, and organizational capabilities. To support inclusive industrial transformation, she proposed a strategy of “start small, learn fast, and collaborate broadly,” focusing on capability-building, ecosystem partnerships, and human-centered innovation. She stressed that Korea must bridge its AI adoption gap to avoid a dual-track economy.

Session 3: The Resilience Imperative – Crafting the New Supply Chain Order
Dr. Parul Bakshi
Fellow, Energy and Climate, Observer Research Foundation Middle East
Dr. Bakshi highlighted how clean-energy transitions and geopolitical fragmentation have elevated critical minerals to the center of energy security and industrial policy. She described India’s strategy to expand processing capacity and global partnerships, alongside Korea’s downstream technological strengths and diversification efforts. She proposed concrete areas for collaboration such as joint processing hubs, blended-finance platforms, shared recycling R&D, and harmonized ESG standards. She argued that India and Korea must move from buyer–supplier dynamics toward co-development of resilient, transparent mineral ecosystems embedded in broader Indo-Pacific networks.

Dr. Sung Hoon Chung
Senior Fellow, Department of Industry & Market Policies, Korea Development Institute
Dr. Chung examined supply chain resilience amid a transition to multipolar competition, emphasizing that efficiency-based models are no longer sufficient in the face of climate shocks, pandemics, and geopolitical tensions. He outlined how Korea and India’s complementary strengths—technology and high-value manufacturing on one side, scale and cost competitiveness on the other—position them as natural partners in reconfiguring global value chains. He proposed joint investment platforms, localized supplier clusters, technology-sharing initiatives, and collaboration on semiconductors, hydrogen, and biopharma. He concluded that bilateral cooperation, embedded in Indo-Pacific frameworks such as IPEF and SCRI, can form the foundation for adaptive, multi-node supply chain networks.