S. Korea, EU hold virtual joint committee meeting on bilateral cooperation

SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the European Union held their annual joint committee session via video links on Tuesday to discuss cooperation on a range of regional and global issues, including climate change, the foreign ministry said. Lee Seong-ho, Seoul's deputy foreign minister for economic affairs, and Gunnar Wiegand, managing director of the Asia and Pacific Department of the European External Action Service, led the 17th bilateral Joint Committee Meeting. The two sides agreed to further strengthen cooperation in tackling bilateral and international issues, including climate change and human rights, while assessing their strategic partnership as having deepened based on their bilateral free trade pact and other arrangements. They also shared the view that international solidarity and multilateralism should be strengthened to respond to global public health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The two sides have held the joint committee session since 2001 to discuss political, economic, security, social and cultural issues. sshluck@yna.co.kr (END)