South Korea is anticipating a potential visit this year by Chinese President Xi Jinping or at least big senior-level exchanges between the two countries, a senior Foreign Ministry official in Seoul said Friday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to sensitivity of the topic, said outside factors like pandemic travel curbs had prevented senior Seoul-Beijing exchanges, dismissing speculation that the two countries are at odds over policy.

In late February, China said it does not allow “meddling” in matters involving Taiwan, referring to South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin’s interview with CNN the same month.

Park stressed that Korea does not support “changing the status quo by force,” clearly undercutting previous ambiguity over where Seoul stands on the self-ruled democratic island that Beijing claims as its own. The US has vowed military action to help Taiwan defend from Chinese attacks.

“Our stance on this is very clear. Peace in the Taiwanese Strait is key to peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia,” the senior Foreign Ministry official in Seoul told reporters, reiterating what Park also said in the February interview.

The official tried to dispel concerns about the three-way military coalition of South Korea, the US and Japan, which he said is meant for a safer Korean Peninsula from North Korea’s nuclear threats.

The US-led group has recently found new momentum for tighter ties, as Seoul and Tokyo have come to terms with putting behind a dispute over a 2018 Korean ruling that mandated Japanese companies that forced Koreans to work for them during Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the peninsula compensate the victims.

Seoul said Monday it will cover the payment while awaiting the firms’ potential participation in a fund meant to enhance ties.

The thaw in relations is expected to deepen the three-way ties, one of the foreign policy goals that President Yoon Suk Yeol says is the top priority. In late December, Yoon revealed the Indo-Pacific strategy, his signature foreign policy that essentially aims to raise South Korea's role on the global stage with backing from the US.

“The tenet of the strategy is inclusivity, meaning no single country is left out of outreach we’re making,” the senior official said, referring to China, Korea’s biggest trading partner.

Still, efforts for warmer ties with Beijing have seen little headway since January, when Korea and China had to deal with a tit-for-tat spat over suspending short-term visas as part of stronger pandemic curbs to prevent a spillover from rising infections. Last week, China lifted almost all travel restrictions on arrivals from Korea, a move that followed Seoul’s decision to drop its curbs on Chinese arrivals.