By Eugene Lee
The epicenter of today’s political world in South Korea could well be the arrest warrant for the Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae Myung in the National Assembly. But as I have argued earlier, it is a natural outcome of much earlier events. I foresaw it coming.
The blame is equally on the ruling party and the opposition party itself. It is still too early to judge who is right and wrong. However, the gravity of these events is probably historic, so I’ll leave my criticism for the future.
My focus here is on something else that occurred on the premises of the National Assembly on Sept. 19, namely, the Summit of Korea-Central Asia Parliamentary Speakers, during which South Korea’s Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo hosted his counterparts and parliamentary delegations from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Given the magnitude of the domestic tremors, this event has hardly been noticed. Even if the event didn’t get much spotlight in the local media, it certainly attracted my attention. And it did so for several reasons.
First of all, the overall format has been a very peculiar one: five Central Asian republics and South Korea. If you think carefully, getting three country officials to sit together is quite a feat for any diplomat, but here, getting all five in one go was something special. We also must remember that these countries are not necessarily eager to sit at the same table. Yet this time they did, and they did that amicably.
Next, my hunch is that Central Asian republics are strongly driven towards regional integration, especially today. Every Central Asian republic was presented with a set of unique conditions after the breakup of the Soviet Union. For example, Kazakhstan is a vast country (ninth in the world by size) with China and Russia as its neighbors, running short of population ― just 19 million people ― which is even less than the populations of Seoul and Gyeonggi put together. And then there is neighboring Uzbekistan, five times smaller in size and with a population of over 36 million people. Both have very unique geographic features and resources. Plus, they still have some territorial issues that arise periodically. Once you picture these two next to each other, you’ll quickly understand that getting them to work together in one direction is not just pleasing but also shows a unique tendency that some chemistry is happening between all five of them.
Then, there was a very loud and strong voice of a speaker from Uzbekistan Tanzilla Narbaeva representing the region and asking for an orchestrated and systemic approach in cooperation from South Korea. It is true that South Korean businesses aren’t taking the first steps in the Central Asian region; they’ve been there since the 1990s. However, they are still grappling with cultural, political, geographic and social differences that don’t let companies reap good results from their investments.
For example, a subsidiary of South Korea’s SK company is involved in road development in Kazakhstan. This participation has been involved in construction and now thinks of taking part in a consortium to run a network of highways. If you understand the reality and nature of the people, for Kazakhs, who roamed the open spaces of the Silk Road for centuries, paying toll fees is still culturally hard. Knowing that would keep companies away from this type of venture.
However, the region is now “infested” by a bunch of so-called consultants from South Korea, who are often ill-advising and squandering good opportunities for cooperation. What was present at this summit was a strong call to bridge the Central Asian region and South Korea and close the gap in such knowledge by creating research centers and even universities.
And finally, if we were to jump 7,000 miles or so away from Seoul to New York City to yet another important event on the very same day, Sept. 19. We would have discovered yet another summit, where U.S. President Biden was hosting all five presidents from Central Asia in a U.S.-Central Asia presidential summit labeled “C5 1”. I don’t know to what extent these events ― one in Seoul and the other in New York ― were diplomatically orchestrated; I can only speculate. But what is clear is that Central Asia as a region is out, and it is out in a big way. Be it security or the economics of development, the region is now set to create a unique clot of multidimensional cooperation within and with the region itself.
No matter what, this summit yet again confirms the words of one government official in Tajikistan, whom I had the privilege to meet a month or so ago. He said that, from now on, whenever you deal with Central Asia states, even just one of them, you have to think of them as a group, or at least keep them all as one in the back of your mind. All that tells me one thing: if Korea is to engage the world, this type of summit is a good example to learn from. Now the ball is in South Korea’s hands to act upon all promises made and not miss the opportunity for bigger cooperation. But prior to that, Seoul will have to learn the intricacies of countries in Central Asia, which are now bundled together as one.
Eugene Lee (mreulee@gmail.com) is a lecturing professor at the Graduate School of Governance at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. Specializing in international relations and governance, his research and teaching focus on national and regional security, international development, government policies and Northeast and Central Asia.
Korea-Central Asia Parliamentary Speakers' Summit, a new kind of partnership with Central Asia
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26.09.2023
By Eugene LeeThe epicenter of today’s political world in South Korea could well be the arrest warrant for the Democratic Party of Korea leader Lee Jae Myung in the National Assembly. But as I have argued earlier, it is a natural outcome of much earlier events. I foresaw it coming.
The blame is equally on the ruling party and the opposition party itself. It is still too early to judge who is right and wrong. However, the gravity of these events is probably historic, so I’ll leave my criticism for the future.
My focus here is on something else that occurred on the premises of the National Assembly on Sept. 19, namely, the Summit of Korea-Central Asia Parliamentary Speakers, during which South Korea’s Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo hosted his counterparts and parliamentary delegations from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Given the magnitude of the domestic tremors, this event has hardly been noticed. Even if the event didn’t get much spotlight in the local media, it certainly attracted my attention. And it did so for several reasons.
First of all, the overall format has been a very peculiar one: five Central Asian republics and South Korea. If you think carefully, getting three country officials to sit together is quite a feat for any diplomat, but here, getting all five in one go was something special. We also must remember........
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