South Korea and Malaysia have agreed to resume negotiations for their bilateral free trade agreement(FTA). 

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said that Trade Minister Cheong In-kyo and his Malaysian counterpart, Tengku Zafrul Aziz, announced the resumption during their meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. 

Bilateral FTA talks have been suspended for about four years since 2019. 

During the Tuesday meeting, the two sides also agreed to expand the scope of the envisioned trade pact to cover new areas, such as service, investment, digital and biotechnology, in addition to commodity which was negotiated during 2019 talks. 

The two nations agreed to create trade ministers’ dialogue to boost close cooperation in the areas of supply chains and new industries. 

Malaysia is the third-largest trade partner for South Korea in Southeast Asia.