UNJournal Lee Sung Jun |CAIRO, August 12, 2026 — South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs participated in the Korea-Egypt Strategic Seminar in Cairo on August 12, using the occasion to formally introduce its Middle East cooperation framework — the SHINE Initiative — and to engage Egyptian government officials and regional experts in discussions on how to advance strategic cooperation between the two countries amid a rapidly evolving regional environment.

The seminar was jointly hosted by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Egypt and NAWA Foundation for Consultancy, Support and Peacebuilding, an Egyptian think tank specialising in policy, security, and conflict resolution. It brought together Egyptian government officials, Korean and Egyptian academics, and policy experts to analyse the impact of recent Middle Eastern developments on international security and the global economy, and to explore sustainable avenues for cooperation.

The SHINE Initiative: A New Vision for Korea-Middle East Relations

The centrepiece of the seminar was the formal presentation of the SHINE Initiative — an acronym encapsulating South Korea's vision for the Middle East around the pillars of Stability, Harmony, Innovation, Network, and Education. The initiative spans three broad domains of cooperation: peace, prosperity, and culture, and was announced by President Lee Jae-myung during his state visit to Egypt last November.

Pyo Ji-soo, Director General of the Middle East Division 1 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, outlined the initiative's background and specific policy content. "We will organically link the three major areas of cooperation — peace, prosperity, and culture — amidst the complex security and economic situations currently facing the Middle East," he said. He emphasised that the initiative is designed to move beyond unilateral support or short-term transactional engagement toward a resilient and sustainable relationship premised on mutual trust and shared prosperity.

The seminar was structured across three sessions: the first examined the key contents and policy significance of the SHINE Initiative; the second addressed the impact of recent armed conflicts and geopolitical shifts in the Middle East on regional security and the global economy; and the third focused on strategic cooperation opportunities between Korea and Egypt in the context of SHINE's implementation.

Egypt Welcomes the Framework

The Egyptian side received the initiative with evident enthusiasm. Mohamed Badr, Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asia at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, welcomed the Korea-Egypt Strategic Seminar and assessed the SHINE Initiative as a useful policy framework for advancing relations between Korea and regional partners to a new level in the current environment.

Deputy Assistant Secretary Badr noted that the initiative aligns with the future vision shared by Korea and Egypt, and expressed his hope that the two countries would expand practical cooperation across economics, security, science and technology, education, and culture on that basis. Participants also agreed that Egypt — positioned as a strategic geopolitical hub connecting Africa and the Middle East — is a natural key partner for the SHINE Initiative's implementation.

Korean academic experts also contributed substantively to the seminar's discussions, including Professor In Nam-sik of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy and Professor Kim Kang-seok of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

Energy, Supply Chains, and Regional Reconstruction

Beyond the SHINE Initiative itself, participants engaged in depth on the economic ramifications of Middle Eastern instability. Discussions examined the ripple effects of armed conflict on energy prices and global logistics networks, and explored how Korea and Middle Eastern countries could cooperate to strengthen supply chain resilience and economic security in the changed international environment.

Participants also explored new cooperation possibilities enabled by the SHINE framework, including peacebuilding, post-conflict reconstruction, digital transformation, the fostering of new industries, and educational and people-to-people exchange. Attendees noted that the initiative offers a new directional framework for Korea-Middle East cooperation that integrates political, economic, cultural, and human dimensions in a coherent whole.

A Platform for Ongoing Engagement

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated it would continue close communication with governments, experts, and research institutions across the Middle East to develop concrete implementation plans for the SHINE Initiative and to pursue follow-up cooperation projects in the fields of peace, prosperity, and culture.

The Cairo seminar is part of a broader effort to ground the initiative in genuine regional dialogue — incorporating the perspectives of Middle Eastern partners into the implementation process from the outset, rather than designing cooperation frameworks unilaterally in Seoul.