United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland–Republic of Korea Senior Economic Dialogue 2025: Joint Communiqué
Source: gov.uk (2025-08-18)

The UK and Republic of Korea held a Senior Economic Dialogue in Seoul on Monday 18 August 2025.

The Second Vice Minister of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kim Jina, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Indo-Pacific, Catherine West MP (hereinafter referred to as “the Ministers”), co-chaired the second UK–ROK Senior Economic Dialogue in Seoul on 18 August 2025.

The Ministers welcomed the opportunity to meet under two new administrations, reaffirming the strength of the UK–ROK Global Strategic Partnership and their shared commitment to advancing sustainable economic growth, resilience, and prosperity. They acknowledged the evolving global economic landscape, including developments in US economic policy, trade relations with China, and ties with the EU.

The Ministers welcomed the opportunity today to discuss these issues of shared economic interest and recognised the ongoing efforts of both governments to deepen cooperation across a broad range of areas, including national economic security, defence-related industrial cooperation, and other economic diplomacy issues.

Bilateral Economic Cooperation

The Ministers reaffirmed the UK-Korea Global Strategic Partnership, centred around shared interests of growth and economic elements. They reviewed progress of negotiations for an upgraded UK–ROK Free Trade Agreement. They noted the successful conclusion of five negotiation rounds and reaffirmed their ambition to complete talks by the end of 2025.

Both sides committed to deepening the bilateral trade and investment relationship, and agreed to work together to foster a favourable environment for each other’s business activities in their respective countries. Ministers noted the complementarity of industrial strategies and discussed greater cooperation in priority sectors such as clean energy, digital technologies, defence industry and engineering biology. They welcomed the UK’s recent ministerial visit to Korea to promote investment opportunities and the growing bilateral investment pipeline. Ministers expressed support for the first UK-ROK Investment Dialogue at senior official level.

The Ministers reaffirmed commitment to enable our Joint Defence Exports MOU by facilitating defence industrial collaboration.

Science, Technology and Innovation

The Ministers discussed opportunities for enhanced cooperation in science and technology, including artificial intelligence, quantum, engineering biology, and space. They welcomed the UK’s AI Opportunities Action Plan and ROK’s ambitious new strategy to become a world-leading AI power.

They reaffirmed support for the UK–ROK Digital Partnership and looked forward to the next Digital Partnership Forum.

Economic Security

Both sides shared the view on the importance of advancing economic security cooperation among like-minded countries, and agreed to enhance collaboration on key issues such as the supply chains of critical minerals, through the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP), a multilateral consultative body on critical minerals.

Energy Transition and Climate Cooperation

The Ministers agreed to deepen multilateral climate collaboration ahead of COP30 and welcomed efforts to enhance the UK-ROK Clean Energy Partnership. Minister West welcomed ROK’s continued efforts to transition away from fossil fuels and to submit an ambitious 2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).

Ministers noted shared economic growth opportunities through deeper collaboration in expanding clean energy and ensuring energy security. They discussed opportunities for joint work on nuclear fuel supply chains, including UK investment in LEU and HALEU capabilities.

Development and Global Cooperation

The Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the UK–ROK Strategic Development Partnership and the implementation of the agreed action plan: to hold workshops enhancing understanding of the ODA implementation systems of the UK-ROK by the end of 2025. They shared their intent to strengthen cooperation in global health.

They discussed the upcoming 8th replenishment of the Global Fund, under the UK’s joint hosting with South Africa. The Ministers reiterated the importance of continued multilateral efforts to fight against infectious diseases, AIDS, TB and malaria.

Multilateral Engagement

The Ministers discussed cooperation in multilateral forums including the G7, G20, and CPTPP. The UK offered to share lessons from its own experience of CPTPP accession. Both sides committed to continued dialogue on Indo-Pacific–Euro-Atlantic cooperation.

Next Steps

The UK and Korea agreed to further deepen our economic cooperation in various fields including trade, defence, climate and AI and technology. They also welcomed the intention to strengthen links between Korean and British businesses, parliamentarians and academics, including through a proposed UK-Korea High Level Forum.

The Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to holding regular Senior Economic Dialogues, to monitor progress of the bilateral economic cooperation and identify new areas for collaboration and economic growth.