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The ROK-UK Strategic Partnership for the Future: Economy, Security, Technology and Culture  

A Talk by Park Jin, Former South Korean Foreign Minister  

Date and Time 

Friday 25 April 2025, 10.30-12.00  

Location 

Bradfield Room, Darwin College  

Event Description 

At a time of acute global and regional uncertainty, former Foreign Minister, Park Jin will reflect on the urgent need and the key opportunities for strengthening bilateral cooperation between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea (ROK). Dr Park has a long history of engagement with the United Kingdom, having taken a degree in political science at Oxford University in 1993, as well as heading, in the past, the Oxbridge Society of South Korea, which brings together ROK-based alumni of the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. In his role as the ROK’s 40th Foreign Minister, he played a pivotal role in helping shape the new bilateral strategic partnership between Britain and the Republic of Korea, culminating in the Downing Street Accord of November 2023. In the last decade, the Republic of Korea has increasingly assumed both a global and regional role, reflecting its increased economic influence, the development of a new Indo-Pacific strategy in December 2022, and the articulation, via the country’s new National Security Strategy in June 2023, of a new posture as a “Global Pivotal State”. Dr Park’s speech will reflect on the achievements to date of the bilateral partnership and potential areas for extended cooperation in the future. The talk will be followed by an extensive question and answer session and engagement with audience members.   

About the Speaker  

Park Jin is a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, a four-term member of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. He served as Chairman of the Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Unification Committee and was Co-President of ROK-US Parliamentary Diplomacy Forum. He previously worked as a Global Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, led the Asia Future Institute (AFI) and served as the Chairman of Korea America Association (KAA), Korea Britain Society (KBS), and the President of the Global Diplomacy and Security Forum of the National Assembly. He holds a BA from Seoul National University, MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, LLM from the New York University Law School, and DPhil from Oxford University. He is also a member of the New York State Bar.   

This event is jointly hosted by the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and the Centre for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge.   

This event is sponsored by the Korea Foundation.