MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th January, 2021) Chinese President Xi Jinping and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in, held phone talks on Tuesday, leading to an agreement to promote high-level bilateral talks aimed at strengthening relations, South Korean presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok said.
Xi and Moon agreed to "continue to communicate and cooperate closely to promote high-level exchanges, including President Xi Jinping's visit to South Korea," Kang said, as quoted by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
Both leaders also agreed to declare 2022 the South Korea-China year of cultural exchange, Moon's spokesman was cited by the agency as saying.
The establishment of a joint committee of experts from Beijing and Seoul is also planned to provide a blueprint for bilateral relations over the next 30 years, Kang added, as cited by the agency.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Seoul back in November for talks with his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-hwa. In the same month, Xi said that he would visit South Korea when "the conditions are ripe."
Beijing and Seoul have spent the better part of five years attempting to mend bilateral relations, which deteriorated after South Korea's former president Park Geun-hye agreed in 2016 to deploy US air-defense missiles on South Korean soil.
