Invitation to President-elect

“I regard a rising India as a factor of peace and stability in the world and expect her role to get bigger progressively” observed Madame Park Geun-hye when I called on her last May, soon after she had led her party to an impressive victory in the National Assembly elections.

Stately, polite and warm, I had an excellent conversation with her about our bilateral relations and other matters of common interest.

India-South Koreas relations have been transformed in recent years, given our common outlook and convergence of interests. Economic ties have further provided the necessary locomotion, with hundreds of Korean companies flourishing in India, some of which like Samsung, Hyundai and LG have become household names. They know about the excellent opportunities on offer in India with a 250 million strong middle class, youthful population and a fast growing economy which would be worth $2 trillion soon. I am gratified that the relationship enjoys bipartisan consensus across the political spectrum in both countries.

It is no surprise therefore that in just the last three years, we have elevated our relations to the level of strategic partnership, concluded a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), set up an Indian Cultural Centre at Seoul (and a Korean Cultural Centre in New Delhi) and a Defense Wing in the Embassy of India in Seoul.

This succinctly underscores the dynamism in bilateral engagement.

Madame Park described India and Korea as natural partners, during my meeting with her, noting that CEPA and the bilateral strategic partnership were important milestones in our relationship. She desired to see them strengthen further, speaking in a similar refrain during her presidential campaign.

In his letter, Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh extended his heartiest congratulations to Madame Park Geun-hye on her historic victory in the presidential election. Noting that both countries were reaching the important milestone of the 40th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations in 2013, he called for an intensification of efforts to build on the strong strategic framework of engagement, mutual goodwill and growing synergies to further strengthen our relationship for mutual benefit and for peace, stability and prosperity in the region.

Prime Minister Singh looks forward to working with Madame Park and her government in pursuit of that goal.

India-Korea ties are characterized by regular high level exchanges between the two countries including the state visit by President Lee Myung-bak in January 2010 when he was the chief guest at Indias Republic Day celebrations, that of the President of India in July 2011 and of Prime Minister Singh in Seoul in March 2012. We now look forward to welcoming Madame Park to India, to further build on the solid foundation and momentum in our mutually beneficial bilateral relationship.

Through the columns of this esteemed publication, I would also like to heartily felicitate Madame Park Geun-hye for her epochal election as the next president of the Republic of Korea. Her victory will be a source of inspiration for everyone especially women, in Asia and beyond, for generations to come. <The Korea Times/Indian Amb. Vishnu Prakash>