South Korean President Lee Jae myung began his state visits to India and Vietnam on April 19th. According to Yonhap News Agency, "supply chain cooperation" has become one of the important topics during his visits to India and Vietnam. According to the Korean Ethnic Daily, against the backdrop of energy market fluctuations caused by conflicts between the United States, Israel, and Iran, South Korea will first initiate discussions with India on supply chain security cooperation. Both sides are expected to strengthen energy supply chain cooperation and explore cooperation space in shipbuilding, maritime, financial, artificial intelligence, and defense fields. They will also strengthen supply chain cooperation between South Korea and Vietnam during their subsequent visits to Vietnam.
According to YTN TV in South Korea, Lee Jae myung stated in New Delhi on the evening of the 19th that South Korea and India will become the "most important strategic partners" in the face of unstable global supply chains. Affected by the Middle East conflict, global supply chain instability has become a norm, and South Korea and India are highly dependent on imports in the fields of raw materials and energy. There is ample room for cooperation between the two sides in the field of supply chain stability. The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the bilateral trade volume between India and South Korea has increased from $14.2 billion in 2010 to $26.89 billion in 2024-2025, an increase of nearly 90%. According to Yonhap News Agency, the South Korean economic delegation accompanying Lee Jae myung on his visit is about 200 people, and the itinerary for India and Vietnam is coordinated by the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Korean Economic Association. Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae yong, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Jung Yi sun, LG Group Chairman Ju Kwong mo and other corporate leaders accompanied the delegation.
After finishing his trip to India, Li Zaiming will go to Vietnam. On the 17th, the Vietnam News website stated that the focus of cooperation discussed by South Korea and Vietnam this time will include nuclear power, high-speed railways, new urban projects, as well as supply chain resilience and high-tech cooperation. The two sides will also explore achieving a bilateral trade target of $150 billion by 2030.
According to a report by Vietnam News Agency, citing Quan Chengze, Executive Vice Chairman of the Korea Vietnam Cultural and Economic Exchange Association, if the economic relationship between South Korea and Vietnam in the past 30 years has been dominated by Samsung LG、 The vertical development led by large enterprises such as Xiaoxing and Hyundai will be the main focus, and in the next 30 years, horizontal cooperation transformation will be achieved, allowing small and medium-sized enterprises to participate more widely and laying the foundation for healthier and higher quality growth in the economic relations between the two countries.
South Korea's "Global Economy" cited an analysis by Professor Kim Tae jung from Mingzhi University, stating that the South Korean economy is highly dependent on overseas resources, and India and Vietnam have prominent strategic significance in supply chain security, making them important partners for South Korea to build stable and diversified supply chains. Li Zaiming's consecutive visits to the two countries reflect South Korea's proactive efforts to strengthen cooperation with countries in the global South, such as India and Vietnam, in the context of global industrial chain restructuring, and to coordinate and promote market development, production layout, and supply chain security.
From the perspective of tripartite industrial division of labor, India, relying on its population size and growth potential, has become the core pivot for South Korea to expand overseas markets in its supply chain layout. Vietnam, on the other hand, has taken on the key functions of production and export in the supply chain with relatively mature industrial supporting facilities. Korean media believe that this integrated layout of market production supply chain is one of the important backgrounds for Li Zaiming's visit. However, some viewpoints point out that current cooperation is mostly at the framework level, and specific results still need to be further observed in the progress of subsequent projects.
