China’s Xi urges respect, ‘right track’ in call with South Korean counterpart

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BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese President Xi Jinping told South Korean President Lee Jae-myung on Tuesday that the two countries should respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, and ensure ties move forward “on the right track”, Chinese state media reported.

In their first phone call since Lee took office last week, Xi said healthy, stable and continuously deepening China-South Korea relations were conducive to regional and world peace and stability, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

China is South Korea’s biggest trading partner and diplomatic relations between the two have improved since a 2017 spat over South Korea’s installation of a U.S. missile defence system that Beijing opposed.

Xi urged the two countries to strengthen exchanges, adhere to the direction of “friendly neighbours” and jointly safeguard global and regional industrial, supply chains.

A strategic cooperative partnership between both countries would bring more benefits to both and “inject more certainty into the chaotic regional and international situation.”

“It is necessary to respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, firmly grasp the general direction of bilateral relations, and ensure that relations always move forward on the right track,” Xi was quoted as saying by CCTV.

Lee’s decisive victory in last week’s snap election stands to usher in a sea-change in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.

He faces what could be the most daunting set of challenges for a South Korean leader in nearly three decades, ranging from healing a country deeply scarred by his predecessor’s martial law attempt to tackling unpredictable protectionist moves by the United States, a major trading partner and a security ally.

(Reporting by Yukun Zhang and the Beijing newsroom, Farah Master in Hong Kong; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Lincoln Feast.)