Xi’s South Korea trip provides fertile ground for ongoing cooperation

Chinese President Xi Jinping is kicking off his two-day visit to South Korea Thursday. It is anticipated that the top leaders of the two countries will sign a joint declaration or statement, and that cooperation agreements in more than 10 areas will also be inked. Xi’s first state visit to Seoul is not only of critical geostrategic significance but is also key to ushering in a new era of substantial cooperation with incredible opportunities to accelerate the implementation of many strategic objectives.

Xi’s journey this time can be viewed as a return visit of courtesy of South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s China visit, which occurred soon after she took office last year.

Nevertheless, given the increasingly bitter confrontations between Beijing and Tokyo, the deadlocked relations between Tokyo and Seoul, and the North Korean nuclear issue, the official visit by the top Chinese leader has been clouded by speculation.

The likeliest finding in all of this is that China and South Korea will likely cooperate to ensure peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

It is well-known that intensified multilateral competition and increasing outbound interference have further complicated the risk factors in Northeast Asia.

China and South Korea have been deepening strategic mutual trust and working with a concerted effort to condense consensus on hotspot issues. In this way they will definitely play a vital role in fostering the concept of integration and the sense of belonging among Northeast Asian countries, which will be conducive to impeding the already tense situation from further deteriorating and preventing certain nations from taking risks.

The visit by the Chinese president will also prompt the two countries to join hands in writing a new chapter in the regional cooperation of Northeast Asia. Undoubtedly, now various mounting risks in geo- graphical diplomacy and security are haunting Northeast Asia, but it still possesses numerous advantages to lead the world economy as a region with inconceivable potential and golden opportunities.

Beijing and Seoul have highly consistent pursuits in ensuring the prosperity of the Northeast Asian economy, which helps make breakthroughs in three aspects.

First, the two sides are expected to make progress in the free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations by narrowing the differences in production and manufactured goods and developing a mutually beneficial mechanism of price offerings and concession rates.

This will greatly promote Sino-South Korean trading cooperation to new heights and establish the position of the two countries as paragons in this region at large.

Moreover, their success will help advance the multilateral economic and trading collaboration by setting an outstanding example for the FTA among China, Japan and South Korea as well as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

Plus, cooperation between China and South Korea in hitech industries will give impetus to the transformation and upgrading of other Northeast Asian countries. Now the two sides have worked out a solid foundation in industrial transformation in trade and investment. Substantial cooperation agreements will be finalized in new energy, environmental protection, finance and aerospace during Xi’s visit.

In addition, an offshore yuan trading center and a center of energy conservation and environmental protection will probably be established soon, which will evoke the enthusiasm in regional stakeholders for technological transformation and two-way investment and also stimulate Japan and some other countries to orient their national development strategy more to economic collaboration.

China and South Korea can create a pillar of cultural communication and people-topeople exchanges in Northeast Asia. A slew of sophisticated factors have worsened mutual feelings of certain nations toward each other and blocked smooth cultural exchanges. The two states will define an objective of more than tens of millions of mutual visitors and play an increasingly prominent role in ramping up people-topeople exchanges and boosting the economy and trade with tourism.

Xi’s visit will surely bring about new opportunities for Sino-South Korean comprehensive cooperation as well as build space in collective imaginations for building a peaceful and prosperous Northeast Asia.