China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) on Saturday signed a host of deals ranging from trade to people-to-people exchanges as the two East Asian neighbors cemented their strategic cooperative partnership. The latest development came as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang started his three-day official visit to the ROK, where he met with President Park Geun-hye before the duo jointly witnessed the signing of 17 bilateral cooperation agreements in areas including trade and economy, science and technology, environmental protection and people-to-people exchanges.
FRESH IMPETUS INSTILLED IN BILATERAL TIES
In their hour-long talk, Li and Park agreed to enhance the increasingly warm China-ROK relations by building up synergies between their own development strategies, such as the "Made in China 2025" initiative and the ROK's "3.0 strategy for manufacturing innovation", and strengthening cooperation in innovation and manufacturing.
Li urged the two sides to seize the opportunities of such synergy and strengthen their cooperation in innovation, intelligent manufacturing and development and research of high-end technology so as to boost the transformation and upgrading of their economies, promote regional inter-connectivity and realize mutual benefits and common development. In his five-pronged proposal, the Chinese premier also suggested the two countries strengthen their strategic cooperative partnership, enhance high-level exchanges and dialogues at all levels, and deepen people-to-people exchanges with an eye to consolidating public support for bilateral ties.
The newly signed deals came months after the two neighbors inked the free trade agreement (FTA) this year and Seoul decided to join the China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Park, for her part, voiced her hope that the review procedure of the China-ROK FTA agreement can be accelerated in a bid to make the document come into effect at an early date. Li's ROK visit, the first of its kind since he became the Chinese premier in 2013, has been the latest signal that the two countries are enriching their strategic cooperative partnership. The high frequency of meetings between the two countries' leaders has also offered a glimpse into the increasingly warm relations between Beijing and Seoul amid their burgeoning trade.
China is the ROK's largest trading partner and largest source of import while ROK is China's third largest trading partner. Their trade volume is expected to reach 300 billion U.S. dollars in 2015, a 60-fold increase over the past 20-plus years. Since last year, Beijing and Seoul have worked on upgrading their ties toward a partnership for joint development, regional peace, Asia's renewal and world prosperity. Upon his arrival at Seoul, Li said he expects to enhance friendship, consolidate mutual trust and expand exchange and innovative cooperation with the ROK side, jointly elevating the good-neighborly friendship and reciprocal and practical cooperation to a higher level. Aju Business Daily, a ROK-based global business newspaper, said Li's ongoing visit is of great importance for the bilateral practical cooperation in various areas. On Sunday, Li is scheduled to meet the ROK National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa, address major representatives from local business community and attend activities aimed at promoting tourism.
TRILATERAL SUMMIT IN LIMELIGHT
The Li-Park meeting was held one day ahead of the widely-watched sixth China-Japan-ROK trilateral summit, which resumed after a three-and-half-year break amid signs of thawing relations between Beijing and Tokyo. The summit, an annual event since 2008, was suspended in 2012 after Japanese leaders' reluctance to atone for the country's wartime past and a territorial dispute chilled Tokyo's relations with its East Asian neighbors.
Li, along with Park and the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, are to exchange views on trilateral cooperation and regional and global issues of common concern, meet with press and attend a business summit. Occupying an overwhelming gravity in Asian economy and a significant share of world economy, China, Japan and the ROK are working for closer economic and cultural ties, aiming at reinforcing regional integration and global cooperation, while beefing up political trust.
Those three neighbors, also the three biggest economies in East Asia, started the FTA negotiations in November 2012 with focus on commodity trade, services and investment. The next round of the trilateral negotiations scheduled at the end of this year might include talks on commodity tariff reduction and services market access.
In Saturday's meeting, Li urged efforts to facilitate negotiations of the China-Japan-ROK trilateral free trade zone (FTZ) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to better link the region. Analysts say the three-way cooperation is essential for those countries' own growth and that of the region at large against the backdrop of a global economic slowdown.
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