South Korea and Russia have discussed ways to advance bilateral cooperation on a range of issues including the economy and high-level personnel exchange, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.

South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Yoon Soon-gu and Russian Vice Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov met during the 17th round of bilateral policy consultative conferences on Monday.

The two officials noted the "accelerating development" of the bilateral relationship. Trade between the two countries soared about 50 percent in the first nine months of this year when compared to last year, while the amount of travel between the two countries reached a record high recently, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

The two officials each hoped that such speedy growth in the South Korea-Russia relationship will continue into 2018, which year marks the 10th anniversary of the forging of a "strategic cooperative partnership" between Seoul and Moscow, the ministry also said.

Yoon expressed South Korea's expectation of having high-level personnel exchanges with Russia during South Korea's hosting of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics in February and the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia in June.

Morgulov called for efforts to kickstart joint business projects that were proposed by the South Korean and Russian leaders' summit in September, including such areas as gas, railroads, harbors, Arctic sea routes, shipbuilding and agriculture.

The Russian official said his country is ready for cooperation on the projects and committed to forge a "legal and constitutional" basis for them.

At the end of the meeting, the officials signed a roadmap for cooperation for the 2018-2019 period, which calls for regular meetings between high-level officials of the two countries, including their top envoys on North Korean nuclear issues, the ministry said. (Yonhap)