ASTANA – South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and the leaders of all five Central Asian states will meet in Seoul on Sept. 16 for their first summit, seeking to turn nearly two decades of ministerial dialogue into a leader-level partnership focused on critical minerals, energy and resilient supply chains.
Photo credit: Marcus Friedrich Schneider Lee has described Central Asia as a region of considerable growth potential, reported his press office. His office said the summit would establish a leader-level multilateral framework, diversify South Korea’s supply chains and give new momentum to its New Northern Policy, which seeks to deepen ties across Eurasia.
The summit’s significance, however, will hinge on whether the six governments can translate those ambitions into commercially viable projects with buyers, financing, transport routes and institutions responsible for implementation. The Korea–Central Asia Cooperation Forum was launched in 2007, followed by the establishment of a permanent secretariat in Seoul in 2017.
The Sept. 16 meeting marks the first time the dialogue will be elevated to the leaders’ level. Tokayev arrived in Seoul on Sept. 14 and is expected to meet Lee ahead of the multilateral gathering. Nargiza Murataliyeva, an associate professor at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, said the mechanism has demonstrated its value in trade, official development assistance and environmental cooperation.
“Previous meetings, however, were largely sector-specific and practical in scope,” she told The Astana Times. “The shift from ministerial meetings to full-fledged leaders’ summits, along with the dialogue’s alignment with the K-Silk Road initiative, marks an effort to move beyond individual projects toward a more systematic geoeconomic partnership,” said the professor.
The regional format, however, brings together five countries with different economic relationships with South Korea. Mehmet Fatih Oztarsu, a professor at Joongbu University and deputy director of the Seoul Institute of Global Affairs, said South Korea has gradually moved away from treating Central Asia as a single economic space since the forum was established in 2007.
Although the regional format provides an institutional umbrella, Seoul has increasingly tailored its bilateral ties to the different strengths and opportunities each country offers. “This is why I would be careful about speaking of a single Korean strategy for Central Asia.
Korea is actually developing several different relationships under the same regional framework,” Oztarsu told The Astana Times. Kazakhstan has emerged as South Korea’s leading resource and energy partner in Central Asia, the expert said. He estimated that South Korean imports of Kazakh mineral fuels could reach nearly $1 billion.