China’s Li and South Korea’s Yoon agree to launch a diplomatic and security dialogue and resume free trade negotiations.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang and his South Korean host, President Yoon Suk-yeol, agreed to launch a diplomatic and security dialogue and resume talks on a free trade agreement a day before their trilateral summit. with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
The meeting of the three leaders on Monday is the first tripartite talks in more than four years. This comes at a time when South Korea and Japan have been working to repair ties frayed by historical disputes, while deepening a trilateral security partnership with the United States, in a context of intensifying China-US rivalry.
On Sunday afternoon, Yoon met Li, who is making his first visit to South Korea since taking office in March 2023.
“China and South Korea face significant common challenges in international affairs,” Yoon said, pointing to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza as sources of increased uncertainty in the global economy.
Yoon told Li that the two countries should work together to address these common challenges.
“Just as Korea and China have overcome various difficulties together over the past 30 years and contributed to each other’s development and growth, I hope to continue to strengthen bilateral cooperation even in the face of today’s complex global crises,” Yoon said, according to with your office.
Li told Yoon that their countries should oppose the transformation of economic and trade issues into political or security issues and should work to maintain stable supply chains, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported.
Easing regional tensions
In recent years, Chinese leaders and diplomats have frequently condemned the US and its allies, including South Korea and Japan, for export controls targeting their semiconductor industry, calling on these countries to stop “exaggerating the concept of national security”.
Since 2021, Chinese companies and state-owned entities have been increasingly blocked from accessing the world’s most advanced chips, many of them produced by South Korean tech giants like Samsung and SK Hynix.
Li expressed hope for continued efforts to “build consensus and resolve differences” through “equal dialogue and sincere communications.”
In a separate meeting with Kishida, Yoon praised progress in diplomatic, economic and cultural exchanges with Japan, and they agreed to promote deeper ties next year when the two countries celebrate the 60th anniversary of the normalization of relations, the country’s office said. Yoon.
Li and Kishida also held a separate bilateral meeting, during which the Japanese leader emphasized that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are very important to Tokyo.
According to Reuters news agency, Kishida also asked Li for the early release of a Japanese citizen imprisoned in China.
The three neighbors agreed to hold a summit every year from 2008 to boost regional cooperation, but bilateral feuds and the COVID-19 pandemic have disrupted the initiative. The last trilateral summit took place at the end of 2019.
There are few expectations of any significant announcements or breakthroughs at Monday’s meeting, but leaders expressed hope it could help ease regional tensions.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
