Chinese President Xi Jinping met with South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Saturday on the sidelines of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, pointing out that China and South Korea are close neighbors that can’t be separated, and the two countries are also inseparable cooperative partners. The steady and solid progress in China-South Korea relations serves the common interests of both nations and their people and is also beneficial for promoting regional peace and development.

Chinese experts noted that sending the country’s prime minister to the Asian Games, which is among the highest-level visits across all the sports delegations, could be a sign. Seoul is showing Beijing that South Korea wishes to improve relations with China, especially when sports diplomacy has played such a vital role in history in breaking through the restraints of the Cold War and enhancing mutual understanding between the two Asian neighbors.

It’s expected that South Korean Prime Minister Han’s attending of the opening ceremony carries President Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s urgent intention to ease tensions in bilateral ties, especially after the US had sent high ranking officials to carry out communications, showing a rational move in managing ties with China, they noted.

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992, China-South Korea relations have rapidly developed, bringing significant benefits to the people of both countries, Xi said, noting that China is willing to work with South Korea to continually update and develop the bilateral strategic cooperative partnership.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, friendly cooperation has always been the mainstream of China-South Korea relations, the Chinese president said. China maintains a policy of good-neighborliness and friendship toward South Korea and values South Korea’s positive intention to advance China-South Korea cooperation.

Xi said that we hope that South Korea will meet us halfway, embodying the importance and development of China-South Korean relations in both policy and actions, with mutual respect and maintaining the overarching direction of friendly cooperation.

Given the close economic ties and deeply integrated supply and industrial chains between China and South Korea, both countries can deepen mutually beneficial cooperation and continue to benefit from each other. Both countries advocate for multilateralism and the global free-trade system. They can strengthen communication and coordination to push international order in a more just and reasonable direction, Xi said.

Such high-level meeting came after the meeting between Chinese Premier Li Qiang and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on the sidelines of the leaders’ meetings on East Asia cooperation held in Jakarta in early September. Analysts believed that such frequent high-level engagement will help move bilateral relations toward a positive direction.