Tokyo, June 29 (BNA): Japan and South Korea agreed today, Thursday, to revive a $10 billion currency swap deal, based on improving bilateral relations to strengthen a regional financial safety net amid rising geopolitical risks.
The swap deal was first agreed in 2001 as a tool to help the two countries weather a financial crisis, but it was never used and allowed to expire in 2015, Reuters reports.
“There is a growing need to strengthen bilateral ties as global and regional economies face great uncertainty and risks,” Masato Kanda, Japan’s vice finance minister for international affairs, told reporters.
He added that the currency exchange deal comes within the framework of the two countries’ ambition to enhance cooperation.
At its peak in 2011, the deal was worth $70 billion. The deal was revived between Japan’s Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki and his South Korean counterpart Cho Kyung-ho at a meeting in Tokyo, in the first dialogue between the two countries’ finance ministers in seven years.
Zhou told reporters after the meeting that the swap line is not intended for any immediate use, but it is useful for strengthening financial cooperation networks.
insignificant
#Japan #South #Korea #agree #revive #currency #swap #deal
Source link