SINGAPORE: The state visit by South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol to Singapore this week marked an important moment, as both countries celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations next year and work towards a strategic partnership.
Bilateral ties between the two countries have rarely come under the spotlight, but public perceptions of each other seem healthy. Two in three Singaporeans have a positive perception of South Korea, driven primarily by pop culture and personalities such as English Premier League footballer Son Heung-min and K-pop band BTS.
This is according to a recent poll commissioned by the South Korea embassy in Singapore which also revealed generally low awareness of issues beyond the Korean Wave.
This corresponds to the findings of a survey released by the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute earlier this year, in which only 1.1 per cent of Singapore respondents expressed confidence in South Korea to champion the global free trade agenda and a mere 0.4 per cent had confidence in South Korea to provide leadership to maintain the rules-based order and uphold international law.
In a 2021 survey conducted by the Seoul-based ASEAN-Korea Centre, South Korean youths between 19 and 34 years old picked Singapore as the most favoured and trusted ASEAN country. Singapore was also regarded as being the second closest ASEAN country, following Vietnam, to South Korea in terms of economy, society and culture, and foreign relations.
There is room to improve perceptions of Singapore-South Korea ties beyond pop culture, alongside enhancing substantive collaboration.
BEING LIKE-MINDED PARTNERSSouth Korea and Singapore share a certain like-mindedness when it comes to the regional and global order, especially in promoting multilateralism and an inclusive architecture, advocating respect for international law, maintaining the global free trade system, as well as leveraging digital and technological trends.
The economic dimension is among the strongest manifestations of the bilateral relationship. Singapore was the first Asian country to establish a free trade agreement with South Korea in 2006, and both countries concluded a digital economy agreement in 2022 – the first between Asian countries.
From 2015 to 2022, Singapore was among the top two destinations for South Korean investment in Southeast Asia. As of 2022, the city-state hosts the second-highest number of South Korean businesses among the 10 ASEAN countries, behind Vietnam.
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Commentary: Singapore football fans love South Korea's Son Heung-min, but they should get behind our Lions too In recent times, the bilateral agenda has kept up with emerging challenges such as cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI). In September, South Korea and Singapore, along with the Netherlands, Kenya and the United Kingdom, co-hosted the 2nd Responsible AI in the Military Domain (REAIM) Summit in Seoul.
Interactions in academia have also deepened over the past decade. Singapore’s first endowed professorship in Korean Studies was launched at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 2016 and the Korea Centre was inaugurated at the National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute in 2021.
The Korea Foundation and the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) at NTU have also regularly co-organised the Korea-Singapore Forum since 2013, which brings together individuals from academia, government, businesses and media from the two countries.
These efforts to facilitate people-to-people exchanges bolster an important dimension of the overall bilateral relationship that goes beyond measurable metrics of trade and investment statistics. These are, fundamentallymasaya game, about creating better awareness and promoting mutual understanding between both sides.
Leaders hold hands for a family photo before the start of the ASEAN-South Korea during ASEAN Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sep 6, 2023. (Bagus Indahono/Pool Photo via AP)