Chinese President Xi calls for boosting ties with South Korea

By Aamir Latif

ANKARA (AA) - Chinese President Xi Jinping and his newly elected South Korean counterpart Lee Jae-myung held a phone call on Tuesday to discuss bilateral ties, trade, and "strategic cooperative partnership," according to state media.

The conversation marked the first official dialogue between the two leaders since Lee assumed office last week, the Beijing-based Xinhua News reported.

Xi said China and South Korea should promote their strategic cooperative partnership to a higher level.

It was the third phone call between Lee and a foreign leader. He earlier spoke to US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru.

Xi urged Beijing and Seoul to jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade, to ensure stable and smooth global and regional industrial and supply chains.

He stressed that the two sides should "inject more certainty into regional and international situations."

Lee also invited Xi to South Korea for November's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, the Seoul-based Yonhap News reported.

"China is an important partner to us in all aspects, including economy and security.

"I hope that the two countries, which are the APEC chair countries this year and next year, will work closely together on the occasion of APEC and build a Korea-China strategic cooperative partnership that can make a real contribution to the lives of the two peoples," Lee said on X.

The South Korean president called for bilateral cooperation with China "based on the spirit of mutual benefits, equality."

Lee and Xi also agreed on "efforts for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."​​​​​​​