President of the Republic of Korea Moon Jae-in (L) and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (Source: yonhap)Manila (VNA) – President of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Moon Jae-in andChinese Premier Li Keqiang have reaffirmed commitments to quickly normalise thecountries’ ties soured by the deployment of a US missile defence system in theRoK.
"Asthey say one must sometimes take a step back to take nine steps forward, Ibelieve we will be able to quickly develop the countries' strategic cooperativepartnership in the very near future if we work to turn our past difficultiesinto a chance and pool our wisdom," the RoK leader told Li in a bilateralmeeting on November 13.
Themeeting was held on the sidelines of the 31st ASEAN Summit inManila, the Philippines. It came two days after Moon Jae-in had talks with hisChinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the 25th APECEconomic Leaders’ Meeting in Vietnam’s Da Nang city, during which both sidesagreed to soon normalise bilateral relation in all fields and strengthenbilateral strategic dialogue.
Lisaid the Seoul-Beijing relations were already facing "active" orpositive changes.
"Iwish we will quickly put the China-Korea relations on the normal track throughthe joint efforts of the two countries," he said.
Seoul-Beijingrelations have been at their lowest ebb due to China's protest against thedeployment of the THAAD missile defense system in the RoK.
Formonths, China enforced what many believed to be de facto economic retaliationagainst the RoK that included a ban on large group tours to the RoK and a rangeof non-tariff import barriers that effectively prevented shipments of manyKorean products, such as cosmetics.
Thetwo countries agreed to normalise their ties in a joint statement issued bytheir foreign ministries on October 31.-VNA
VNA
