Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a phone conversation with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday, said cooperation between China and South Korea against the COVID-19 pandemic has set a good example of cooperation for the global fight against the coronavirus.
The cooperation has shown the high-level of the China-South Korea strategic cooperative partnership, Xi said after exchanging Lunar New Year greetings with his South Korean counterpart.
The Chinese president also touched on trade between the two countries. Despite the debilitating influence of COVID-19, bilateral trade has increased, Xi pointed out, noting the complementary characteristics and great potential of China-South Korean cooperation.
The two sides should continue to make good use of the cooperation mechanism of joint prevention and control as well as "fast lanes," so as to facilitate the epidemic prevention and control and economic development of the two countries, and to help boost regional and global anti-pandemic cooperation, he said.
2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the China-South Korea diplomatic relations, which will embrace new opportunities for greater development, Xi said.
Xi hopes both countries make good use of the platform of the committee for future development of China-South Korea relations, review the achievements of bilateral ties over the past 30 years, plan for future development, enhance friendship between the two peoples and lift the China-South Korea strategic cooperative partnership to a new level.
He also expressed hope that the two sides can earnestly implement the consensus reached on speeding up the alignment of development strategies of the two countries and strengthening bilateral cooperation in key areas, so as to continuously expand mutually beneficial cooperation and promote high-quality integrated cooperation.
The Chinese president said that the two sides should accelerate the completion of the second-phase negotiations on the free trade agreement between the two countries, so as to put into effect the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership at an early date and speed up the construction of the China-Japan-South Korea free trade area.
He also vowed to strengthen coordination with Seoul regarding international affairs while jointly preserving multilateralism and free trade.
For his part, Moon first sent his congratulations to the Communist Party of China (CPC) as 2021 marks the 100th anniversary since the Party's founding. He spoke highly of China's COVID-19 prevention efforts under Xi's leadership while doubling down on his determination to deepen ties in areas including trade, culture and education with China.
The South Korean president also said that Seoul is willing to keep close contacts with Beijing in issues like climate change and sustainable development.
(With input from Xinhua)