Seoul’s geopolitical tightrope walk

THE Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit held from Oct 31 to Nov 1 in Gyeongju saw around 20 nations attend. Yet, for the South Korean hosts, the big two that mattered the most were the US and China.

While Seoul has long been a security ally of Washington, it increasingly finds itself in a diplomatic balancing act with Beijing given the latter’s growing influence in Asia and beyond.

This was shown at the recent summit, where South Korea skilfully positioned itself as a leader advancing economic integration and resilience across the region.