Chinese premier urges South Korea to remove obstacles in bilateral ties

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday urged South Korea to continue making substantive efforts to remove obstacles in bilateral ties so as to ensure their sound and steady development.

Li made the remarks during a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on the sideline of a series of leaders' meetings on East Asian cooperation in the Philippine capital of Manila.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on the sideline of a series of leaders' meetings on East Asian cooperation in the Philippine capital of Manila, Nov. 13, 2017. [Photo: Xinhua]

Li's meeting with Moon came just two days after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Moon in Da Nang, Vietnam, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting.

The two presidents reached important consensus on improving ties, Li said.

China and South Korea have reached some consensus in dealing with the issue of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) in the current stage, Li said.

During the meeting with Xi, Moon said that South Korea attaches importance to China's concern on the THAAD issue, and has no intention to harm China's interests of strategic security.

Noting the rapid development of bilateral ties and cooperation since the two countries established diplomatic ties 25 years ago, Li hoped the two sides would cherish the long-standing political mutual trust and respect each others' core interests and major concerns.

He called on the two sides to synergize development strategies, take advantage of their complementarity and strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in such areas as economic and trade, finance, manufacturing and environmental protection.

China and South Korea have broad common interests and huge cooperation potential, said the Chinese premier, urging joint efforts to open up a new chapter for bilateral cooperation.

For his part, Moon said that bilateral ties are now standing at a new starting point.

He pledged joint efforts with China to rebuild political mutual trust and resume cooperation in economic and trade and people-to-people exchanges so as to get bilateral ties back onto the normal track at an early date.

The two sides also exchanged views on regional issues of common concern.