IDSA-KIDA Bilateral Dialogue (February 28, 2012), Seoul, South Korea

February 28, 2013

A three member delegation of IDSA visited the Korean Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA), Seoul from February 27-02 March, 2013. The IDSA delegation comprising Dr. Arvind Gupta (DG), Brig. Mandip Singh (Senior Fellow) and Dr. Jagannath Panda (Research Fellow); held discussion on a range of bilateral, regional security and political issues. The bilateral dialogue was held on 28th February 2013 at KIDA, in the spirit of IDSA-KIDA bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2011. KIDA is a premier think-tank, funded by the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Korea (ROK).

A team of South Korean experts led by General Bang Hyo-Bok (Retd), President of KIDA, participated in the bilateral dialogue. Experts like Dr. Tae Am Ohm, Dr. Chang Kwoun Park, Dr. Boem Chul Shin, Dr. Hyeong Wook Boo, Dr. Chang-hyung Lee and Mr. In Kyu Noh deliberated the South Korean perspectives on a variety of security, economic and political issues, touching from ROK-India relations to cyber security, defense, and space security issues. The first session of the dialogue dealt with ‘Security and Defense’ related issues in Asia; whereas the second session was about ‘security and defense cooperation Between India and ROK’. This was the second round of dialogue between IDSA and KIDA. The first round of discussion was held at IDSA in New Delhi towards the end of 2012. The meeting in Seoul was concluded on an extremely positive note with each side pledging to carry forward the dialogue towards enhancing the strategic understanding and cooperation between the two countries and two premier think tanks.