Presidents Piñera and Moon Jae-In promote greater cooperation between Chile and South Korea
In a state visit by the President of Chile to the East Asian country, collaboration agreements were signed with respect to defense, digital government, transport, and information and communication technologies. Chile and the Republic of Korea will also work together to expand the free-trade agreement between the two nations.
President Sebastián Piñera highlighted on Monday the robustness of relations between Chile and South Korea, its fifth largest trading partner, and called for deepening cooperation between the two countries after a meeting with President Moon Jae-In.
Along with agreements signed regarding defense, modernization of the State and transport and technology, the two heads of state added four new priority areas for joint work: progressing towards a digital government at the service of citizens; fully joining the knowledge and information society; collaborating on cybersecurity and promoting free trade and multilateralism.
"We need a new, more modern and more inclusive treaty; and, at the same time, to speed up talks so that South Korea can transform its status as an observer member to an associate member of the Pacific Alliance," said the President of Chile in a statement to the press at the Government Palace of the Republic of Korea alongside President Moon.
President Piñera welcomed South Korean investments in Chile, which are beginning to be developed in telecommunications, digital government and infrastructure.
He also highlighted the strong commitment of South Korea to the quality of education, its strenuous effort to save on investment in order to build the pillars of the future, along with its vocation of openness and integration into the world and support for science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship as the path to development.
"All these are very important and very useful lessons for our country's mission, which is to transform Chile into a developed nation before the end of the next decade," said the President, who was hosted, along with First Lady Cecilia Morel, in the Government Palace.
The President of Chile thanked President Moon Jae-In for his commitment to taking part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ meeting in November and the COP 25 climate change conference in December, which will both take place in Santiago, and will represent a huge success for free trade and for the protection of our planet.
Finally, the President referred to President Moon's "productive effort to make progress towards the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and also in the contribution he has made to facilitate the dialogue between the United States and North Korea."