Russia·Central Asia

Information on Countries and Other Areas
Information on the Region
- Russia
- Central Asia
1. - The ROK-Russia Relations
    - Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in September 1990, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation have deepened their friendly relations across various areas such as politics, business and culture.
    - Korea and Russia upgraded their bilateral relations to a Strategic Cooperative Partnership on the occasion of the official visit of President Lee Myung-bak to Russia in September 2008. Since then, the two countries have increased high-level exchange and expanded their governmental and non-governmental channels of cooperation.
    - The two countries agreed to launch a comprehensive dialogue platform for their business, academic, governmental and non-governmental leaders under the name of “Korea-Russia Dialogue” in April 2010, and established a pro-Korea network in Russia called the “Russia-Korea Society” in 2014.
    - Korea’s exports to Russia amounted to USD 6.33 billion and its imports from Russia to USD 14.81 billion in 2021. Korea’s investment in Russia accumulated to USD 4.16 billion by 2022.
    - In January 2014, the Agreement on the Mutual Abolition of Visa Requirements entered into force, boosting the people-to-people exchange between Korea and Russia to reach 804,000 in 2019. (117,000 in 2020)
    - In 2015, the two countries commemorated the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations by holding various events, such as the launching of the Eurasia Express.
    - As of 2020, there were 4,842 Korean nationals and 163,684 ethnic Koreans living in Russia.
    - Since President Moon Jae-in took office in May 2017, five Korea-Russia summit meetings took place: on the occasion of the G20 Summit in July 2017, on the occasion of the Eastern Economic Forum in September 2017, and the state visit of President Moon to Russia in June 2018, on the occasion of EAS in November 2018, on the occasion of G20 Summit in June 2019. The two countries are exerting great effort to further strengthen their relations.
2. - The ROK-Central Asia Relations
    - Regional Information
      
      Five Cental Asian Countries are consisted of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and the land mass of the region extends to a total of 4,003,000㎢ which is 18 times larger than the Korean Peninsula.
      
      The total population of the region is 73million and among them, approximately 45% are Uzbek. In terms of ethnicity, Uzbeks and Kazakhs form a majority while considerable amount of Russians also reside in the region.
      
      Due to Central Asia’s well known abundance of energy and natural resources the region is often reflected to be “Another middle east.” Kazakhstan’s Oil, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan’s Gas are the main natural resources of the mentioned countries while Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan is known to be rich in hydro power.
      
      All Central Asian countries have designated Islam as their state religion, but also acknowledge other religions as the Russian Orthodox, providing the right to freedom of religion.
    - Korea-Central Asia Relations
      
      Upon the foundations of mutually beneficial economic structure and cultural similarity, Korea and the Five Central Asian Countries have forged a remarkably cooperative partnership since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992. Since 1992, there have been 16 the ROK-Uzbekistan, 14 the ROK-Kazakhstan, 5 the ROK-Turkmenistan, 2 the ROK-Kyrgyzstan, 3 the ROK-Tajikistan summits.
      
      Remarkable progress for comprehensive and diversified regional cooperation has been made through the annual Korea-Central Asia Cooperation forum headed by Vice Foreign Ministers since 2007. Above all, Korean-Central Asia Cooperation Forum Secretariat, a permanent secretariat established for the purpose of facilitating and enhancing multilateral cooperation between Korea-Central Asia was officially launched under the Korean Foundation on the 10th July 2017.
      
      The Export from Korea to Five Central Asian Countries marked 5.1 billion US$, while the import was 1.6 billion US$. The accumulative sum of Korean investment to Central Asia recorded an amount of 5.7 billion US$(2019).
      
      Approximately 310,000 Korean descendants are residing in the Russian and Central Asian region(Uzbekistan 178,000, Kazakhstan 110,000, Kyrgyzstan 19,000, Turkmenistan 1,000, Tajikistan 800). It had been marked 80th anniversary of the settlement of Korea Diaspora in Central Asia in 2017.

Information on Countries and Other Areas

Information on the Region

The ROK-Russia Relations

The ROK-Central Asia Relations

Regional Information

Korea-Central Asia Relations