On the sidelines of the 31st Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Lima, Peru, Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol pledged to strengthen their countries’ strategic cooperative partnership. The meeting, held on Friday, underscored the commitment of both nations to promote a sound and steady development of bilateral ties amidst changing international and regional landscapes.
President Xi highlighted that despite the many changes in the international and regional situation over the past two years, China and South Korea have maintained a momentum of development. “No matter how the situation changes, China and South Korea should stick to the original intention in establishing diplomatic ties, firmly adhere to the direction of good-neighborliness and friendship, and remain committed to the goal of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation,” Xi stated.
He emphasized the need for both countries to leverage their geographical proximity, cultural affinity, and economic integration to strengthen exchanges and deepen cooperation. “We should give full play to these advantages to promote a sound and steady development of our strategic cooperative partnership, better benefiting our peoples and contributing to regional peace, stability, development, and prosperity,” Xi added.
President Xi called for enhanced high-level contact to increase understanding and trust between the two nations. He reiterated China’s steadfast commitment to expanding high-level openness to the outside world and welcomed more South Korean enterprises to invest and do business in China. “Both sides should work together to safeguard the international free trade system, ensure the stability and smoothness of global and regional industrial and supply chains, and conduct more activities conducive to enhancing friendship,” he said.
Xi also expressed hope for increased cultural and people-to-people exchanges, encouraging public opinion circles, academic circles, subnational levels, and especially young people, to strengthen interactions. He welcomed more South Korean people to visit China and hoped South Korea would introduce more facilitation measures for Chinese citizens to visit.
President Yoon affirmed South Korea’s view of China as an important cooperation partner and expressed hope to continuously develop the strategic cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and the original intention of establishing diplomatic relations. “This will help us better address common challenges and promote regional peace and stability,” Yoon said.
He assured that South Korea’s policy of respecting the one China principle would not change and expressed a desire to participate in China’s modernization process. Yoon also looked forward to further strengthening economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. “South Korea welcomes China’s visa-free policy for our citizens and is willing to strengthen cultural and people-to-people exchanges between our countries,” he noted.
Both leaders agreed to closely communicate and cooperate within multilateral frameworks such as APEC to jointly uphold multilateralism and free trade. President Xi congratulated and supported South Korea in its role as the host for next year’s APEC meetings, expressing willingness to expand multilateral coordination and cooperation.
Reference(s):
Xi calls on China, S. Korea to promote sound development of ties
cgtn.com
