UNGA: EAM Jaishankar meets RoK's FM Chung Eui-yong, discusses India's Act East Policy

In line with United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meetings, External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar held a meeting with his South Korean counterpart Chung Eui-yong on Tuesday, 21 September. The meeting was aimed to discuss different aspects of the bilateral relationships, including ROK's New Southern Policy and India's Act East Policy. 

After the meeting, Jaishankar in a tweet said that he was pleased to meet FM Chung Eui-yong of Republic of Korea as they discussed different various issues to boost the relationship between the two countries. 

EAM Jaishankar further interacted with his Italian counterpart and current G20 chair, Luigi Di Maio, and discussed challenges related to COVID-19 vaccine accessibility and smooth travel. "Discussed challenges related to vaccine accessibility and smooth travel. Look forward to joining him at a discussion on Afghanistan tomorrow," he tweeted.

India's Act East Policy

An upgrade of 'Look East Policy' is the 'India's Act East Policy' that was announced in November 2014 that is aimed to promote economic cooperation, cultural ties, and developing a strategic relationship with countries in the Indo-pacific region. Through this diplomatic initiative, India seeks to achieve deeper economic and political development goals for the region by creating sophisticated markets and contact links between countries of Southeast Asia.

While the Korean government's New Southern Policy aims to strengthen its relations with ASEAN and India as key partners in the southern region. The policy is focused to raise connectivity links to the level of Korea's traditional four major diplomatic partners including the U.S., China, Japan, and Russia, and develop values. The New Southern Policy further aims to form a multilateral diplomatic and economic framework to adjust to the US' priority on domestic concerns. 

Jiashankar's bilateral meetings

On 21 September, EAM Jaishankar held his first UNGA meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide. He also met with UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and wrote on Twitter that he was “pleased” to meet with the British official. The EAM also said that he and Truss talked about the “progress of Roadmap 2030.” They also discussed Afghanistan and the present situation in the Indo-Pacific. 

Later, Jaishankar also met with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein and exchanged views on “historical ties, economic, energy and development cooperation linkages.” He described the meeting with Hussein as “cordial.” Further, official sources have told ANI that Jaishankar will be participating in the G4 foreign ministers meeting on 22 September and is also expected to take part at the SAARC meeting on 26 September. However, the meeting is not yet confirmed. G4 nations consist of Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan.

(Image: @DrJaishankar/TWITTER)