S Korea hopes to resolve visa suspension issue with China through talks
A day after China suspended short-term visas for South Korean nationals, Seoul stated on Wednesday that it will try to resolve the visa suspension issue through consultations with Beijing.
While commenting on China's actions, South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Beijing's actions are not retaliatory, Yonhap News Agency reported. "I don't think it's retaliation," Han said, according to the agency.
China's embassies in Japan and South Korea announced that short-term visas for citizens of both nations wishing to visit the country would be suspended.
The Chinese Embassy in Seoul has issued a notice suspending the issuance of short-term visas to South Korean citizens visiting China for business, tourism, medical treatment, transit, or general private affairs, Chinese broadcaster CGTN reported.
During his regular press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said some countries disregard science, facts, and their actual epidemic situation, and have insisted on taking discriminatory entry restriction measures targeting China.
"Since China announced the decision to manage COVID-19 with measures against Class-B infectious diseases and adopted provisional measures on cross-border travel, many countries have expressed their welcome, but a few countries have announced entry restriction measures targeting travelers from China," Wang said. "China firmly rejects this and will take reciprocal measures," he added.
A regional migration and drug smuggling crisis is expected to dominate talks between US President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday. Biden arrived in Mexico City late Sunday after a politically charged stop at the southern US border-his first since taking office.
He will meet Monday and Tuesday with Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau oneon-one and also together in what is dubbed the "Three Amigos" summit. While trade and environmental issues are also on the table, Biden has put a surge in irregular migration and dangerous drug trafficking front and center of his trip, his first to Mexico as president.
"Our problems at the border didn't arise overnight," Biden tweeted after his arrival. "And they won't be solved overnight. But, we can come together to fix this broken system. We can secure the border and fix the immigration process to be orderly, fair, safe, and humane."
On his way to Mexico, Biden stopped for several hours in El Paso, Texas, a city at the heart of the troubled border.
He met with US officials at the Bridge of the Americas crossing, watching a demonstration of the latest border enforcement technology, as well as a customs sniffer dog. He later got out of his motorcade to inspect a section of the tall fencing that snakes between El Paso and its twin city Juarez on the Mexican side.