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The EU and South Korea are planning to indicate off Western mushy energy in Asia within the face of Chinese language and North Korean threats.
What the EU is looking a diplomatic “showcase” will see EU Council president Charles Michel and European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen meet South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul on 22 Might.
EU and South Korean leaders have been assembly for many years.
However Might’s summit comes after China declared a “no limits partnership” with Russia regardless of its invasion of Ukraine final yr, whereas South Korea backed Western sanctions on Russia — extending the struggle’s dividing traces across the globe.
It additionally comes amid Chinese language sabre-rattling on Taiwan and rising EU concern that China is turning into an financial and propaganda menace.
The Seoul summit will “ship a agency message in favour of upholding the rules-based worldwide order and additional coordinate … responses to Russia’s aggression”, in line with an inside EU “orientation observe”, dated 27 March and seen by EUobserver.
Michel and von der Leyen will “urge” Yoon “to additional align with the EU sanctions towards Russia/Belarus and encourage South Korea to provide deadly navy help to Ukraine”, it stated.
They will even press him to lean on non-aligned Asian nations to assist finance Ukraine. “Seoul has already sought to garner assist amongst wavering states, however may very well be extra pro-active,” the EU memo stated.
South Korea was “clearly fascinated about working extra intensively with the EU as a like-minded companion, alongside the US, Japan, and Australia, with out overly antagonising Beijing,” the memo added.
However Yoon was deemed “much less cautious of alienating China than the opposition”.
He needed to make “full use of Korean financial leverage in South and Southeast Asia” and to “strengthen the resilience of provide chains, notably for vital parts, by ‘diversifying’ away from reliance on China in strategic industries”, the EU observe stated.
The summit will promote EU-South Korea cooperation in delicate sectors, corresponding to AI and quantum computing.
It can additionally launch talks on Korea’s addition to Horizon, the EU’s €95.5bn science-grant programme. “The lifelike timeline for Korea’s potential affiliation to Horizon Europe is 1 January 2025,” the observe stated.
Delicate energy apart, the summit will “exhibit EU curiosity within the safety and stability of the Indo-Pacific area”, it stated.
The US was the “cornerstone” of South Korea’s navy defence and “RoK stays to be satisfied of the EU’s function as a safety actor within the Indo-Pacific,” the EU admitted.
However the EU and US just lately performed a joint naval train within the area.
And the EU now needs to debate “joint actions between the RoK navy and Operation Atalanta and/or the prevailing Coordinated Maritime Presences (Gulf of Guinea & North-Western Indian Ocean)”, the memo stated, referring to 3 ongoing EU naval missions.
Summit provocation?
In the meantime, Michel and von der Leyen will fly to Seoul regardless of the ever-present hazard that “the summit may coincide with a DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] nuclear take a look at or missile launch or navy tensions on the border”.
North Korea has additionally sided with Russia on Ukraine and amped up tensions with South Korea.
For its half, the EU goals to uphold present sanctions on Pyongyang and “proceed efforts to persuade the DPRK to renew dialogue [with South Korea] by means of stress and openness to a brand new diplomatic course of,” the summit observe stated.
However South Korea “has little expectation of negotiations on denuclearisation,” it added.
“Seoul needs companions to assist US-Korea-Japan efforts to limit finance flows that the DPRK can use to develop its weapons programmes, notably by imposing autonomous sanctions on malicious cyber-threat actors,” the EU memo stated.
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