Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Kang Kyung-wha paid a visit to Malaysia on 20-21 December to strengthen Malaysia-RoK relations.

Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha (L) shakes hands with her Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah (Photo: Yonhap)

During the visit, she met with her Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah and Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Speaking after the meeting with the RoK diplomat, the Malaysian PM said he and Kang discussed bolstering the nations’ cooperation towards the 60th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties in 2020.

By maximising synergy between the RoK’s New Southern Policy and Malaysia’s Eastern Policy, the two sides agreed to bring bilateral ties a notch higher, focusing on human resources training and digital technology.

Meanwhile, Kang and her Malaysian counterpart Abdullah discussed preparations for the upcoming state visit of RoK President Moon Jae-in, slated for March 2019, and other issues, including the ASEAN-RoK summit, which is scheduled to take place in the RoK during next year’s second quarter.

New areas of cooperation, especially in technology and education, were also discussed at the meeting.

The Malaysian FM said the two sides expect to enhance ties in innovation, as Malaysia and the RoK both look to embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as well as education, with the focus on student and academic exchange programmes.

The RoK was the eighth largest trade partner and 13th leading foreign investor of Malaysia in 2017. Two-way trade surged to 67.71 billion MYR (16.2 billion USD) in the reviewed period, up 13.6 percent against 2016.

(Source: VNA)