China, South Korea vow to maintain supply chain stability as ties improve

BEIJING, March 19 (Reuters) – Chinese and South Korean officials meeting in Beijing vowed to jointly maintain supply chain stability and deepen trade ties, official statements showed on Thursday, as bilateral relations warm amid geopolitical shocks from the Iran War and U.S. trade policies. 

Beijing has been seeking stronger ties with Seoul, whose president called for a full restoration of bilateral relations in a visit to China in January. 

China is willing to deepen cooperation in trade and investment with South Korea and jointly safeguard industrial and supply chain stability, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said in a meeting with Seoul’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Resources Kim Jung-Kwan, a Chinese statement said.

“In the event of logistics delays or raw material shortages, the two countries will immediately activate communication channels… and coordinate a joint response,” said a readout of the meeting released by the South Korean ministry. The two countries will also “improve predictability” in supply chains involving critical items such as rare earths and permanent magnets, it said. 

China’s willingness to boost trade ties with South Korea stands in contrast to its rupture with Japan, the other major East Asian economy whose prime minister’s remarks about Taiwan late last year triggered Beijing’s ire.

Kim and China’s industry minister, in a separate meeting on Wednesday, called for advancing cooperation in the fields of semiconductors, lithium batteries and the silver economy, according to official readouts. 

(Reporting by Shi Bu, Yukun Zhang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Alexandra Hudson)