Chinese premier urges China, South Korea to seize more development opportunities

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Sunday called on South Korea to work with the Chinese side to grasp the general direction of friendship and mutual trust between the two countries, and respect each other's core interests and major concerns.

It is hoped that the two sides can be each other's friendly neighbor of mutual trust and partner of mutual achievement, and promote a sound, steady and substantial development of China-South Korea relations, Li said when meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in Seoul.

The industrial and supply chains of China and South Korea are deeply intertwined, and the two sides should seize more development opportunities together, he said.

China is ready to deepen cooperation with South Korea in areas such as high-end manufacturing, new energy, artificial intelligence and biomedicine, he said.

China will further expand market access and strengthen guarantees for foreign investment. It welcomes South Korean companies to invest in China, he added.

The two sides should also oppose turning economic and trade issues into political or security issues, and maintain stable and smooth industrial and supply chains of the two countries and the world, he added.

Li said China is willing to strengthen coordination with South Korea in multilateral fields and jointly promote world peace and development.

Yoon said South Korea adheres to the one-China principle and this position remains unchanged.

He said his country is willing to expand economic and trade cooperation, strengthen people-to-people exchanges with China, deepen cooperation among South Korea, China and Japan, and promote further development of South Korea-China ties.

Both sides agreed to accelerate the second phase of the Free Trade Agreement negotiations between the two countries.

They also agreed to launch a high-level diplomacy dialogue and a security dialogue at an appropriate time, promote people-to-people exchanges and youth exchanges, as well as further facilitate exchanges between people of the two countries.

Li arrived in Seoul on Sunday to attend the ninth trilateral summit meeting of China, Japan and South Korea.

(With input from Xinhua)