President Park Geun-hye returned home Monday after concluding a set of multilateral summits on global economy and security in a trip that took her to China, Myanmar and Australia.
The trip raised the possibility of fence mending with Japan as she met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for the first time in eight months in Beijing on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Later, she also proposed resuming a stalled summit with Chinese and Japanese leaders during a separate regional summit in Myanmar.
The Asian powers have not held a regular trilateral summit since May 2012 due to tensions between South Korea and Japan and between China and Japan over territorial and other history-related issues.
She also held a series of bilateral meetings with world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping as well as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Thai prime minister, Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha.
Park secured Prayut's assurance that Thailand will resume relevant procedures to ensure South Korea's state-run Korea Water Resources Corp. (K-Water) will regain its status as the preferred bidder in Thai water management projects worth more than 6 trillion won (US$5.4 billion).
K-Water was tapped in June 2013 as the preferred bidder for the project, but the project was thrown into doubt when Prayut took power after a May 22 coup.
On the economic front, Park and Xi made the announcement in Beijing that the two neighbors have struck a free trade agreement that could boost bilateral trade.
Park and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced that their countries have struck a free trade agreement to boost trade and economic cooperation.
The two leaders made the announcement on the sidelines of a summit of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies in Brisbane.
In Brisbane, Park and other world leaders pledged to implement their growth strategies and refrain from competitive devaluation to help foster global economic recovery. (Yonhap)
