South Korean President Park Geun-hye was in India on a three-day state visit last month, providing a valuable opportunity for New Delhi and Seoul to impart new dynamism to bilateral relations and underscoring the success of India's "look east" policy.

Signaling its intent to take India-South Korea ties to new heights, days before the South Korean president's visit, India's environment ministry gave its go-ahead to POSCO's proposed 12 million-tons-per-year steel plant in Odisha, which has been delayed for more than eight years over various clearances and land acquisition. The first phase of the plant is likely to be commissioned in 2018.

By signing nine pacts during the recent visit, including the Agreement on the Protection of Classified Military Information, concluding negotiations for revision of the existing Double Taxation Avoidance Convention, agreeing to hold annual interactions between the national security structures of the two countries, launching a cyber affairs dialogue, stepping up collaboration in peaceful uses of space science and technology, and agreeing to India's extending a "tourist visa on arrival facility" to South Korean nationals, New Delhi and Seoul have signaled that they are intent on imparting new momentum to their bilateral relations.