South Korea, US seek progress on $350 billion investment talks

South Korea’s foreign minister and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio agreed Friday to work together to ensure “good” results from ongoing bilateral consultations on Seoul’s proposed investment projects in the United States, South Korea’s foreign ministry said, as quoted by local media.

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Rubio met at the U.S. State Department in Washington as Seoul and Washington continued negotiations on investment projects linked to last year’s bilateral trade agreement, under which South Korea committed to investing US$350 billion in the United States.

The two countries had initially been expected to announce South Korea’s first investment project on Friday, Korea time. The announcement has reportedly been postponed until next week after a related briefing to the National Assembly was delayed.

“I called on (Secretary Rubio) to make joint efforts to ensure that ongoing consultations related to strategic investment projects in the U.S. will yield good results, while asking the secretary to play a role in that process,” Cho said at a press briefing with South Korean correspondents.

“Secretary Rubio said that the State Department will also make its efforts to ensure that the consultations will be successfully concluded,” he added.

Cho said the two sides also agreed to maintain communication to ensure the faithful implementation of key agreements reached at summits last year between South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump, including those set out in a joint fact sheet.

Seoul and Washington released the fact sheet in November, outlining trade, investment, security and other agreements reached by Lee and Trump during their summits last year.

By Tamilla Hasanova