President Moon praises PM Modi for strengthening India-Korea relations

New Delhi : South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiatives have helped strengthen the bilateral relations between the two countries.

President Moon said he was looking forward to the Indian Prime Minister's visit to South Korea in 2020."India and Korea, for the last 45 years, have developed bilateral relations in various fields and in 2015, the occasion of Prime Minister Modi's visit to South Korea escalated those relations to a special strategic partnership," said President Moon.

"Now three years have passed, and Prime Minister Modi's 'Act East Policy' is important for co-operation to Korea, and I am pressing ahead with the 'New Southern Policy' that makes India Korea's key partner for cooperation," he added.

He further stated that he agreed with Prime Minister Modi to promote co-operation for people, prosperity and peace and respond to the fourth Industrial Revolution so as to create engines of future growth.
"By facilitating exchange between people of the two countries, we decided to broaden the scope of mutual understanding and empathy. We'll make mutual summit level visit on a regular basis. We agreed to expand high-level consultations between the two governments," President Moon said.

He also said that in order to boost cultural co-operation, various steps like visa-on-arrival will be implemented in order to reduce the inconveniences experienced by people travelling between the two countries.In conclusion, President Moon said that he was looking forward to the Indian Prime Minister's visit to South Korea in 2020, and hoped the two would continue their close communication in various multilateral summits.President Moon arrived in New Delhi on Sunday on his first ever state visit to India.

On Monday, Prime Minister Modi and President Moon inaugurated the 35-acre Samsung mobile factory in Noida which is considered to be the world's largest mobile factory.President Moon also addressed the India-Korea business forum and visited Gandhi Smriti with Prime Minister Modi yesterday.