2025: The perfect year for Korea to join the G7+

The participants also recognized Korea’s ability to contribute to the stability and prosperity of the international community if it becomes a G7+ member.

Kim Woo-sangThe author is an emeritus professor of political science and diplomacy at Yonsei University and former president of the Korea Foundation.

The three-day Korea-Canada Forum, hosted by the Seoul Forum for International Affairs (SFIA), held its 21st session in Montreal, Canada, from Oct. 24. The forum is a 1.5-track conference that brings together international relations experts and diplomats from Korea and Canada — two representative middle power countries — to discuss important global agendas. In particular, this year’s event was a meaningful gathering to discuss the Group of Seven (G7) Plus agendas with Canada, which will chair the G7 summit next year.

According to diplomatic theory, a country needs to meet only one of four criteria to be recognized as a middle power in the international community. A country is considered a middle power if it meets one of the following criteria: relative national power in the international system, respect for global humanitarian norms and the rule of law, active participation in multilateral institutions for international peace, and geopolitical importance. The logic is that most liberal democracies can qualify as middle powers.

But the few middle power countries which can discuss and influence major global issues alongside the great powers in the international community are distinctly different from the typical middle power countries. Canada, a member of the G7, Australia, India and Indonesia — members of the G20 — and several European countries such as the Netherlands and Spain are pivotal middle power countries. Korea, one of the seven members of the “30-50 Club,” with a GDP of more than $30,000 and a population of more than 50 million, is also a pivotal middle power country. Those countries are committed to defending liberal democracy, human rights and gender equality. They also pursue global peace through multilateral institutions and play leading roles in creating and upholding new international norms and legal orders. They are countries with national power that can significantly influence regional orders.

Pivotal middle powers cannot afford to look the other way in the face of the U.S.-China hegemonic competition. Nor can they rely on an ineffective mega-sized multilateral system. They need to play an active role in smaller multilateral regimes to challenge the great powers and represent the interests of small and weak countries when necessary.

The Korea-Canada Forum addressed a number of issues that are more important than ever. First, the participants agreed that China’s aggressive behaviors in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea and the potential escalation of the war in Ukraine due to North Korea’s unlawful troop deployment to Russia pose serious geopolitical risks to the Indo-Pacific region. They also discussed cooperative measures to maintain the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, protect freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and deter North Korea’s nuclear threats and proliferation.

They also agreed that the two countries should cooperate in the defense industry and that Canada should play a role in the United Nations Command in South Korea. They agreed on the need for naval cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, foreign and defense ministerial meetings between the two countries and cybersecurity cooperation.

On the climate change agenda, the two countries also highlighted the importance of cooperation for clean energy, small modular reactors, EV battery technologies and a stable supply chain for rare earth minerals. The participants, of course, discussed ways to strengthen the high-level economic and security dialogues to promote the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, signed in 2022 between the two countries, and measures to support the Korea-Canada Year of Cultural Exchange, which began this year.

In particular, the Canadian side pointed out the potentials for scientific, technological, strategic and economic cooperation between the two countries’ space agencies to develop the space industry, while the Korean side emphasized the need for the G7 to include pivotal middle power countries like Korea and Australia. The participants also recognized Korea’s ability to contribute to the stability and prosperity of the international community if it becomes a G7+ member.

The United Nations Security Council, a major global security public institution, is becoming dysfunctional due to frequent vetoes by China and Russia. The World Trade Organization (WTO), an economic public institution, is cracking under the weight of the escalating U.S.-China trade war and the diminishing role of the United States as a leading player. The G20 is also not functioning properly due to the conflicting interests of its members. You can sense that global governance is not what it used to be.

In times like this, operating bilateral and multilateral institutions among pivotal middle powers is all the more urgent. There’s no need to emphasize further that various cooperations with Canada, which will chair the G7 summit next year, is crucial. On the occasion of the Korea-Canada Forum, we look forward to the global governance role of the G7, which is composed of advanced liberal democracies, and the expansion of the G7 by adding pivotal middle powers such as Korea and Australia as its new members.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.