South Korea, Britain launch new dialogue platform for economic ties

Seoul, Sep 29
South Korea and Britain have launched a new high-level dialogue channel meant to discuss ways of stronger cooperation on a wide range of economic and financial issues, finance ministry said on Sunday.

The inaugural meeting of the bilateral economic and financial dialogue took place in London on Thursday, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, adding South Korean Deputy Finance Minister Choi Ji-young and Lindsey Whyte, the director general of Britain's HM Treasury, were in attendance.

The two sides agreed to launch a new dialogue channel between the two nations' finance ministries during a summit between South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and then British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in November 2023, reports Yonhap news agency.

During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on their domestic and global economic circumstances and discussed how to enhance two-way cooperation on supply chains and other economic security issues, multilateral economic cooperation and responses to climate change.

Also on the table was Europe's new carbon tax rules of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, the ministry said.

Choi met major investors in Britain last week and asked for their greater investment in South Korea while explaining the country's financial circumstances, investment incentives and various foreign currency bonds.

Meanwhile, the top diplomats of South Korea and China agreed to continue high-level meetings between the two countries on the margins of multilateral gatherings, the foreign ministry said on Sunday, signalling a summit between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, reached the agreement as they met in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday (local time) to discuss bilateral ties and security on the Korean Peninsula, according to the South Korean foreign ministry.

The agreement strongly suggests that the two countries will push for a summit between Yoon and Xi on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to be held in Peru in November and next year's APEC summit to be held in the South Korean city of Gyeongju.

"While assessing that high-level exchanges have taken place briskly between South Korea and China this year, the two sides agreed to continue with high-level exchanges at multilateral meetings in the second half of this year and work together to achieve substantial outcomes from these high-level meetings," the ministry said in a statement.