Madagascar’s relations with South Korea were first established in 1962, but soon fractured in 1972 with the arrival of revolutionaries close to the Eastern bloc—manifested in a rapprochement with North Korea during Madagascar’s Second Republic (which began in 1975 and lasted until 1992). During this period, Madagascar was distinctly inspired by the ideas of ‘Djoutché’ or ‘Juche’—the state ideology of North Korea. The country’s Iavoloha Presidential Palace was also built by the North Koreans for free in the 1970s. The end of Madagascar’s Second Republic marked the return of relations with South Korea, concretized by the opening of a Korean embassy in Antananarivo in 2016. 

However, South Korea has been poorly perceived in Malagasy public opinion due to the land-grabbing project initiated by the South Korean company, Daewoo, covering more than one million hectares for the cultivation of cereals intended for the Korean market in 2008. This triggered demonstrations contesting the project with regard to the sacredness of Madagascar lands, which cannot be ceded to foreigners. The rationale behind the project was in the primarily economic nature of South Korea’s presence in Africa; its own inability to ensure self-sufficiency in food has driven it to buy lands in other regions of the world. Since then, Madagascar’s collaboration with South Korea—which aims to position itself as a ‘global pivot state’—has expanded beyond the mining sector to include health, energy, infrastructure, agriculture, education and culture. 

Following the lead of other ‘non-traditional’ partners active on the continent—beginning with Japan’s TICAD in 1993—South Korea organized its inaugural Korea–Africa summit in June 2024. Madagascar’s participation concluded with the signing of a memorandum for enhanced cooperation in the field of critical minerals (rare earths, cobalt, graphite, lithium), which are constituent elements of the green and digital economy, and in rice cultivation. Like other countries, Madagascar is a central country in South Korea’s Indo-Pacific vision, given its strategic geographical positioning. Collaborations in the field of maritime security and safety are initiated through support for customs and the army; while South Korea’s soft power also comes to life through the teaching of the Korean language, the granting of scholarships for students and civil servants and the promotion of K-culture. 

Amid increasing competition in the Indo-Pacific, Madagascar is trying to play a more proactive role while facing growing appetites from regional and extra-regional countries for its strategic resources. Its geostrategic position arouses great political interest to the extent that Madagascar has had to implement a range of multilateral diplomacy initiatives to navigate these partnerships. However, such efforts notably still lack clarity and visibility in a more fragile and fractured multipolar world, partly due to the absence of a strategic document such as a foreign policy charter⎈