European Union (Or Member States) as a Security Provider in the Indo-Pacific: South Korea’s Perception and Security Cooperation Between the Two

In December 2022, South Korea released its Indo-Pacific strategy, which defines the Indo-Pacific region as including French and British territories in the Indian Ocean. This implies that South Korea sees the geopolitical struggle in the Indo-Pacific as a competition between China and the broader West (rather than just the United States) and intends to enhance its security cooperation with the latter. In this context, South Korea sees the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) as relevant security actors in the Indo-Pacific. The EU (or member states) has been perceived up to the present as a relatively neutral entity in the region compared to the US or China. With this perception, South Korea and the EU can cooperate on (1) the disposal of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction, if and when a deal on North Korean denuclearization is reached at the peninsula level, (2) dealing with nontraditional security issues at the sub-regional level of Northeast Asia, and (3) peacekeeping operations (PKO) at the sub-regional level of Europe and Africa. That said, the chapter claims that South Korea’s perception of the EU has been changing to that of it being a part of the US-led security network, thanks to NATO and the UK. As a result, South Korea and the EU can cooperate on maritime security issues, especially in maritime domain awareness (MDA) at the Indo-Pacific level.