A former top South Korean diplomat has urged China and the United States to push ahead with negotiations to inject stability into their relationship, warning that economic nationalism would bring harm to the world.
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Kang Kyung-wha, who served as South Korea’s foreign minister from 2017 to 2021, told a forum in Beijing on Thursday that the China-US trade deal reached earlier this month after a series of tit-for-tat tariff increases was welcomed by countries around the world.
“But for this to be more than a temporary reprieve, the two sides must continue to negotiate and act to provide stability and predictability in the bilateral relationship,” she said.
On May 12, Beijing and Washington announced they had agreed to remove the bulk of tariffs for a 90-day period following trade negotiations in Geneva, but trade frictions have remained high.
In what was a rather gloomy assessment, Kang, who is now president of the Asia Society, said the world was grappling with turbulence and uncertainty, and that “long-accepted assumptions and beliefs about the global order are under assault”.
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“Globalisation and multilateralism seemed like an inevitable historical force, lifting all boats in its path. Markets opened, people moved, ideas flowed … But today, the currents that once drove globalisation seem to have been overtaken by the forces of fragmentation,” she said.
“Security concerns and trade tensions have dampened the aspirations towards an interdependent world where all would enjoy peace and prosperity.”