Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came to South Korea last Saturday, ahead of the Nuclear Security Summit meeting which started here Monday, in order to meet with President Lee Myung Bak of South Korea.

The meetings with South Korean leadership were full of reassurances about previous cooperative projects and announcements of new plans for continuing cooperation in the future in the areas of construction, energy, space exploration, and supplying consumer goods for the growing middle class of India.

On Sunday again the Prime Minister and President both reiterated the importance and benefits of the bilateral relationship between their two countries. They spent a lot of time focusing on developing deeper ties in economic, trade, security, and cultural avenues. They also both agreed that the meetings between the two countries' ministers and secretaries were creating good results. Singh noted that bilateral trade between two countries had risen around 70% since the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) was signed between the two countries, passing the US$20 billion line last year. The Forum believes the new target of US$40 billion by 2015 is easily achievable.

During the summit both countries also agreed to enhance cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space as envisaged in the MOU on cooperation between the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). The two leaders also expressed a desire to take the bilateral civil nuclear cooperation agreement signed during the State visit of the President of India to Korea in July 2011 to the next level, and to soon begin building first nuclear reactor in India. The Forum hopes nuclear energy cooperation between the two countries will go a long way in solving the energy crisis in India.

The strategic partnership agreement signed during the president’s visit to India also got a big boost during the summit. Both countries agreed to expand cooperation and coordination between their countries on strategic issues facing the region. The two countries also expressed great satisfaction with the commencement of a Trilateral India-Korea-Japan dialogue amongst think-tanks of the three countries. The Forum sincerely hopes this dialogue will go a long way towards deepening the understanding of each other’s strategic priorities in the region in big way.

On Monday Prime Minster Singh met with the CEOs of major Korean companies. In the meeting the prime minister declared that "Investment from Korea is a priority for India. We will take pro-active steps to address investor grievances and improve the business climate in the country." Currently India is counting on Korean firms' expertise in both building a lot of infrastructure and manufacturing the luxury goods that the country will need in its path of growth for the next few decades. The Forum is expecting Korean companies to play a bigger role in India in the next few decades.

The bilateral summit was a great success.