Polisario excluded from South Korea-African Union talks in Seoul

Seoul is hosting a ministerial meeting of the South Korea–African Union partnership on June 1 and 2. The gathering is intended to review progress made since the first Africa–South Korea summit, held in the South Korean capital in June 2024. At that summit, Seoul announced major financial commitments to support Africa’s development between 2024 and 2030, as well as measures aimed at facilitating African exports’ access to the Korean market.

As was the case at the 2024 summit, the Polisario was not invited to the ministerial meeting. Numerous exchanges in recent months between South Korea’s ambassador to Algeria and senior Algerian officials, including the secretary-general of the Ministry of Defense, the speaker of the National People’s Assembly and the president of the Council of the Nation, appear not to have altered Seoul’s position, as the Front was once again excluded from the talks scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

The Polisario had already been left out of the most recent Africa–France summit, held on May 12 in Kenya. The Front was also not invited to the India–African Union partnership meeting, initially scheduled to take place in New Delhi from May 28 to 31 before being postponed because of an Ebola outbreak affecting several African countries.