Эволюция и перспективы центральноазиатской политики Республики Корея

Восток. Афро-азиатские общества: история и современность. 2023. № 4. С. 127–139.

Pugacheva O.

The article is devoted to the specifics of the policies of the Republic of Korea (ROK) towards Central Asia (CA). South Korean administrations viewed the region as part of a larger regional strategy, whether tied to Asia under Lee Myung-bak or Russia under Park Geun-ha and Moon Jae-in. The difficulties with the realisaion of the Russian vector of Moon Jae-in’s New Northern Policy (NSP) led to designing the Central Asian countries as key partners of the ROK’s NSP.

Under the Russian-Western confrontation and traditionally tense relations between the conservative South Korean administrations and the DPRK, the relevance of the Eurasian vector has decreased for the ROK. However, the curtailment of continental rhetoric and the shift in the priorities of South Korean diplomacy to the Indo-Pacific region will not greatly affect the practical cooperation between the ROK and the Central Asian countries. A prolonged crisis in Russian-American relations may lead to the fact that the ROK will begin to build its Central Asian course in connection to the South Asian direction of its Indo-Pacific strategy. The ROK will try to refrain from joining an anti-Chinese or anti-Russian course in CA. However, the split of the world into two groups and the growing polarization may make it much more difficult for Seoul to balance and pursue a policy independent from the United States in Central Asia.

Keywords: Центральная Азия, Central Asia, Республика Корея, Евразия, Eurasia, the Republic of Korea, New Northern Policy, Eurasian Initiative, Евразийская инициатива, Новая северная политика