Union External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar met former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and former Mongolian Prime Minister Gombojav Zandanshatar on the sidelines of the Jeju Forum on Thursday, 25 June 2026, signalling India's continued engagement with multilateral Track 1.5 diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific.

Context

Dr. Jaishankar posted on X: 'Good to see former UNSG Ban Ki-moon and former PM Mongolia Gombojav Zandanshatar at Jeju Forum today.' The brief but pointed acknowledgement underlines the minister's presence at one of Northeast Asia's most prominent annual dialogue platforms, held in Jeju, South Korea.

The Jeju Forum, launched in 2001 by South Korea, is a Track 1.5 platform that brings together serving and retired statesmen, academics and business leaders to discuss peace, security and economic cooperation across the Asia-Pacific. Its informal format allows candid exchanges that formal bilateral meetings often do not permit.

Policy Backdrop

Ban Ki-moon served as the 8th UN Secretary-General from 2007 to 2016, during which he championed climate diplomacy, the Sustainable Development Goals and peacekeeping reform — all areas where India has been an active multilateral stakeholder. An encounter with him at a forum of this nature reinforces India's commitment to the rules-based international order.

Gombojav Zandanshatar served as Prime Minister of Mongolia in 2009 and later as Chairman of the State Great Khural, Mongolia's parliament. His presence at Jeju reflects Mongolia's own outreach within the Asia-Pacific architecture. India and Mongolia share a Strategic Partnership declared in 2015 during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Ulaanbaatar, covering defence cooperation, civil nuclear energy and Buddhist heritage — a relationship that New Delhi has steadily deepened.

South Korea itself is a key partner under India's Act East Policy, with growing collaboration in technology, defence manufacturing and regional security frameworks. Dr. Jaishankar's attendance at the Jeju Forum is consistent with India's strategy of diversifying diplomatic engagement beyond traditional SAARC and ASEAN mechanisms to include Northeast and Central Asian interlocutors.

Stakeholders and Impact

For Indian diplomacy, the Jeju encounter carries layered significance. Informal dialogue with figures of Ban Ki-moon's stature can feed into India's multilateral positioning at the UN and in climate negotiations. Engagement with Zandanshatar keeps the India-Mongolia channel active at a senior level ahead of any future high-level bilateral visits or joint working group meetings.

Regional policymakers across Northeast and Central Asia watch India's presence at forums like Jeju as a barometer of New Delhi's intent to play a larger role in Asia-Pacific security conversations — a space traditionally dominated by the United States, China, Japan and South Korea.

What's Next

The next round of India-Mongolia joint working group meetings on defence and economic cooperation will be closely watched to see whether the Jeju interaction translates into tangible bilateral momentum. More broadly, India's continued participation in Track 1.5 forums signals that Dr. Jaishankar's foreign-policy playbook will keep seeking out informal but strategically valuable multilateral touchpoints across the Indo-Pacific arc.