Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the European Commission
Against the background of increased military support from North Korea to Russia and raising instability in the region, I travelled to Tokyo and Seoul at the beginning of this month. We concluded new Security and Defence Partnerships with Japan and South Korea, the first ones outside Europe. Having worked steadily to strengthen our ties with Asia, it is a great satisfaction for me to have been able to conclude these two partnerships before leaving office.
While Europe is facing the existential threat of the Russian aggression against Ukraine and trying to stop the war that broke out in Gaza after the massacre of 7 October 2023 and prevent it spreading to the whole region, we do not forget that the world’s centre of gravity is shifting towards Asia and the Indo-Pacific. That’s why I took part in the Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore last May, Asia’s Munich Security Conference, and in July in the ASEAN Regional Forum in Laos.
What happens in the Indo-Pacific has a direct impact on Europe
What happens in the Indo-Pacific region has indeed a direct impact in Europe due to our strong links in trade and foreign direct investment as well as in people-to-people exchanges and to the strategic role the Indo-Pacific countries play globally in a number of key technologies, particularly semiconductors. The issue of peace and freedom of navigation in compliance with UNCLOS in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait is therefore of particular concern to us, even though this region is a long way from our borders.
What’s more, the various crisis theatres in Europe and Indo-Pacific are inevitably linked as we can witness from North Korea’s growing involvement in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. In addition to the artillery ammunitions and missiles that have been delivered in industrial quantities for many months now, which flagrantly violate multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions, North Korean soldiers are now directly involved alongside Russian soldiers in the war of aggression against Ukraine. This marks an escalation of the utmost seriousness, which was of course at the heart of our discussions with the Japanese and South Korean leaders. They are very concerned about their national security and the potential destabilisation of the region in view of the defence cooperation agreement recently signed by Russia and North Korea, the continued development of North Korea’s nuclear programme, and Russia’s recent declarations on North Korea’s nuclear status.
My first stop was Tokyo, where I met Defence Minister Gen Natakani before chairing, with Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, the first EU-Japan strategic dialogue agreed at the EU-Japan Summit in July 2023.
Japan is one of the EU’s closest partner in the Indo-Pacific
Japan is one of the EU’s closest partner in the Indo-Pacific, with excellent cooperation, including at the G7, and coordination across the board on global and regional issues, and a wide range of sectoral areas, notably the green and digital transitions, where Japan has a great deal of know-how and advanced technologies. With Foreign Minister Iwaya, we exchanged the ratification notifications of the EU-Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement concluded in 2019 -and finally ratified by all Member States last spring-, which sets out the overarching framework for cooperation between the EU and Japan.
Japan has recently shown a growing interest in cooperating on security and defence with the EU, including on economic security. Japan has been indeed repositioning itself more and more as a regional security provider and a major global partner to the US and other like-minded countries in recent years.
On the occasion of our first Strategic Dialogue, we announced the EU-Japan Security and Defence Partnership, the third of this type, following those with Norway and Moldova, and the first outside Europe. This new partnership frames our bilateral cooperation on ‘non-traditional’ security areas such as maritime security, participation in EU missions and operations, space security, cyber issues, Foreign Information Manipulation & Interference (FIMI), counter-terrorism, non-proliferation and defence industry. We had on 11 November a first bilateral cyber dialogue in Tokyo in this new framework.
The Japanese government is fully aware that security in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region is closely linked. Prime Minister Ishiba recently stressed that ‘today’s Ukraine could be tomorrow’s Asia’. Japan is alarmed by the recent violations of its airspace by China and Russia and their military activities around the Japanese archipelago, as well as by North Korea’s military support for Russia and its nuclear and missile threats.
The EU-Japan Summit scheduled for the first half of 2025 will for sure be an additional opportunity to strengthen our cooperation in the field of security as well as in many other areas.
In South Korea, I travelled first to the Demilitarised Zone between South and North Korea, in the Panmunjon Valley, accompanied by Major General Lena Persson Herlitz, head of the Swedish delegation monitoring the ceasefire. At a time when we are celebrating the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, this visit reminded us that the Cold War had not ended everywhere at that time. I had also the opportunity to meet with Ban Ki Moon, the former UN Secretary General and other civil society representatives.
The EU and the Republic of Korea, strategic partners since 2010
The EU and the Republic of Korea have been strategic partners since 2010. Our relations are mainly based on a Framework Agreement on political relations and a Free Trade Agreement. The EU and Korea have also launched a Digital Partnership in 2022 and a Green Partnership in 2023.
Since his election in 2022, Korean President Yoon has championed an active foreign policy agenda, including strong support for the US-South Korea alliance and promoting South Korea as a ‘global pivot state’. The South Korean government is willing to strengthen the country’s diplomatic safety net to protect it from uncertain geopolitical changes by establishing bilateral relations with like-minded countries, as well as ‘mini-lateral’ networks such as the South Korea-US-Japan trilateral cooperation, the G7 and NATO.
With Defence Minister Kim Young Hyun, we discussed, amongst other, the recent Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile test by North Korea and its consequences. Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and I announced the new EU-Republic of Korea Security and Defence Partnership before co-chairing our first Strategic Dialogue, as decided during the EU-Korea summit held in May 2023 in Seoul, where we celebrated the 60th anniversary of our diplomatic relations.
We discussed extensively the security situation in the region. Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang in June, his first visit since 2000, and signed a ‘comprehensive strategic partnership treaty’ with Kim Jong Un, which includes ‘the provision of mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties’. Putin has also invited Kim to Moscow for a forthcoming visit.
South Korea is a like-minded country when it comes to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. It has voted in favour of all relevant UN General Assembly resolutions, participated in the Ukraine peace summit and signed the joint communiqué adopted at this occasion. South Korea will provide Ukraine with $ 394 million in financial aid in 2024, eight times more than in 2023, and has also declared its readiness to contribute to Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction.
On 23 October, the South Korean National Intelligence Service announced that 3,000 North Korean soldiers had gone to Russia to fight Ukraine and that more than 10,000 others would be deployed before December. In response, the Korean presidential office hinted at the possibility of supplying arms to Ukraine. The Korean defence industry is very powerful and efficient and, during our meeting, I strongly supported this prospect. We also discussed with our Korean counterparts the issue of circumvention of our sanctions against Russia and the ways to avoid it.
We also adopted a joint declaration condemning the cooperation between North Korea and Russia. And I confirmed to our interlocutors that the EU stands in full solidarity with South Korea in the face of the North Korean nuclear and missile threat and its bellicose attitude. We must continue our joint efforts to increase the cost of North Korea’s actions, so that it has no choice but to stop its provocations and resume dialogue.
South Korea and Japan have regular trilateral dialogues with the United States on the one hand and China on the other. The EU could also contribute to the promotion of stability in the region in this kind of format.
Having worked since the beginning of my mandate to strengthen our ties with the Indo-Pacific region, I am very satisfied that we have been able to conclude these two Security and Defence Partnerships with Japan and Korea before leaving office. The EU was certainly not born as a military alliance but, in the current geopolitical context, it can and must also become a global security provider and partner in areas such as maritime security or cyber threats.
