MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/. President of South Korea Moon Jae-in proposed to increase bilateral trade with Russia 1.5-fold, bringing it to $30 bln by 2020.
"I propose achieving together a trade volume of $30 bln and a humanitarian exchange rate of up to 1 mln people by 2020, when we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations," he said on Friday at the Russian-Korean business forum.
In 2017, trade volume between the two countries amounted to $19.2 bln. "The record for humanitarian exchange has been broken - 500,000 people, but this is only the beginning, because we have unlimited opportunities," the South Korean President noted.
"I propose achieving together a trade volume of $30 bln and a humanitarian exchange rate of up to 1 mln people by 2020, when we will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations," he said.
Moon Jae-in also said he expects that during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin an agreement will be reached to start negotiations on a free trade zone.
"An agreement between the two countries on free trade of services and investments will serve as a starting point for increasing the trade volume. At the upcoming summit, an agreement will be reached on the procedure for starting negotiations on concluding this deal," he said.
He hopes that "the future agreement in the field of services and investments will be followed by negotiations in the field of goods, which will make it possible to conclude a mutually beneficial and comprehensive agreement on free trade in the near future.".