Upon approval, vice administrator of the National Immigration Administration (NIA) Li Yulu led a delegation to South Korea for the 2019 high-level working meeting with the Korea Immigration Service of the Ministry of Justice, Republic of Korea (ROK), from December 10 to 13, 2019.

Representatives from NIA's Department of International Cooperation on Immigration Affairs, Department of Foreigners Management, Department of Frontier Inspection and Management, Department of Information Technology attended the meeting. Cha Gyu-geun, commissioner of the Korea Immigration Service of the Ministry of Justice of ROK, led the heads of the Immigration Inspection Division, the Residency Management Division, and the Nationality Division to attend the meeting.

Li Yulu said that China and ROK are friendly neighbors and important cooperative partners. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations 27 years ago, bilateral relations have achieved leapfrog development, bringing great benefits to the two countries and their peoples, and making important contributions to promoting regional peace and prosperity. Since the beginning of this year, the state leaders of the two countries have pledged to maintain communication at all levels and promote dialogue and cooperation in various fields. Under the background of friendly cooperation, the immigration administrations on the two sides maintained high-level exchanges of visits and continued close cooperation, making important contributions to facilitating personnel exchanges between China and ROK. Li hoped that the two sides would further consolidate friendly relations and strengthen pragmatic cooperation to contribute to the economic and social development of both countries.

Cha Gyu-geun noted that the important consensus reached by the two countries' leaders in the new era indicated the direction for the cooperation in the field of immigration. ROK looked forward to strengthening cooperation and communication at all levels with the NIA of China, learning from each other, and further promoting friendly exchanges between the two countries.

The two sides briefed each other on the overall situation of immigration administration, relevant policies and measures and the progress of key tasks since the 2018 administration-level working meeting, and jointly reviewed the cooperation and exchanges between China and ROK in the field of immigration since 2019. The two sides also exchanged in-depth views and reached consensus on specific topics such as facilitating personnel exchanges between the two countries, deepening exchanges and cooperation between border inspection authorities, strengthening protection of the legitimate rights and interests of their own citizens, enhancing repatriation and transfer of criminal suspects, and signing of the MOU on cooperation.

During the stay in ROK, the delegation also visited the immigration offices of Incheon and Busan and border inspection stations at Incheon Airport and Busan Port, and had discussions and exchanges with their Korean counterparts.

Notice: The English version is only for reference. To learn more, please refer to the authoritative Chinese version.