Korea, Netherlands agree to bolster ties

 

President Lee Myung-bak held a summit with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende in Seoul yesterday to discuss how to promote bilateral trade, investment and cooperation in environment-friendly energy development, shipbuilding and logistics.

 

Lee and Balkenende decided to redouble efforts to put into effect at an early date the Korea-EU free trade agreement and a revised basic framework for Seoul’s overall relations with the European Union, Cheong Wa Dae said in a press release.

Lee and Balkenende agreed that the basic framework and the FTA between Korea and the EU, which was provisionally signed last year, would “greatly contribute” to boosting their ties if implemented, the presidential office added.

They also welcomed the memorandums of understanding inked by the related authorities of their countries on the Saemangeum tidal flat reclamation project along Korea’s west coast and the country‘s push to clean up its four major rivers.

The leaders expressed satisfaction over the constant development of their countries’ relations since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1961, as the Netherlands has emerged as the third largest investor in Korea after the United States and Japan, according to Cheong Wa Dae.

The Dutch prime minister said he would bring up the Cheonan sinking when he visits China today and Lee thanked him for the offer, according to Lee’s spokesman Park Sun-kyoo. China, a member of the United Nations Security Council and ally of North Korea, is expected to play a significant role in the aftermath of the naval disaster, which is believed by many experts to have been caused by the North.

Lee and Balkenende also discussed how to deal with the global financial crisis and climate change and promote green growth.

The Dutch leader arrived in Seoul yesterday morning for a two-day stay, his first trip here since taking office in 2002.

Balkenende, accompanied by a group of business leaders from the European country, was also scheduled to meet Korean business leaders, receive an honorary doctorate from Yonsei University in Seoul, and tour the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas.

 

Source: The Korea Herald