President of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Yoon Suk Yeol (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - The state visit to Vietnam by President of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Yoon Suk Yeol from June 22 - 24 at the invitation of President Vo Van Thuong aims to cement trust and boost mutual benefits while creating a new driving force for the two countries’ collaboration in 2023 in all key areas.
Vietnamese Ambassador to the RoK Nguyen Vu Tung highlighted the significance of the visit, stressing that it will mark an important milestone in the relations between the leaders of the two countries, helping promote stronger exchanges between ministries, sectors, localities, businesses, and people of Vietnam and the RoK.
Vietnam attaches importance to the Vietnam-RoK cooperation within Vietnam’s overall development strategy in general as well as the country’s foreign policy in particular. The two countries’ relationship is based on two main pillars - trust and win–win cooperation.
(Workers at a production chain of Samsung Vietnam: Photo: VietnamPlus) Since the establishment of the bilateral diplomatic relations in 1992, the two countries have upgraded their relationship twice, from a comprehensive partnership to a strategic cooperative partnership in 2009, and to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2022. The two nations’ high-ranking leaders have maintained regular exchanges of delegations and visits. Meanwhile, mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation have been established and operated stably across various fields.
The bilateral cooperation has shifted from overlapping benefits to intertwined interests, while cooperative frameworks and institutions both bilateral and multilateral have constantly been strengthened and mutual trust deepened.
The fact that President Yoon selects Vietnam as the first country in Southeast Asia to visit just six months after the elevation of bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership reflects the specialness of the Vietnam-RoK relationship.
The RoK President’s visit reflects his wish to strengthen mutual trust and enhance intertwined interests.
Taking place when the bilateral ties are flourishing in all aspects, the trip is also hoped to create new momentum for all-around cooperation between the two countries in 2023, from politics and diplomacy to security, defence, economy, education - training, science - technology, culture, sports, tourism, labour, and people-to-people exchange.
Delegates at the second Deputy Prime Minister-level dialogue on economic cooperation between Vietnam and the RoK. (Photo: VNA) Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien said Vietnam and the RoK have become a leading partner of each other in many fields, in which economic, trade and investment partnerships are both pillars and drivers for bilateral ties’ development.
The RoK is currently the largest foreign investor in Vietnam, the second biggest partner in ODA, labour and tourism cooperation and the third biggest trade partner of the Southeast Asian nation. Meanwhile, Vietnam is the largest ASEAN trade partner of the RoK, accounting for 30% of investment and 50% of trade value between the Northeast Asian nation and the bloc.
The two sides should continue to exploit the complementarity of the two economies from the perspective of human resources/labour, value chain/supply chain, technology transfer, and trade balance.
In the time ahead, the two sides will continue to expand their partnership in new areas such as climate change response, digital transformation, green development, clean energy, supply chain stability, defence industry cooperation, coordination within the framework of trade agreements and mechanisms, and people-to-people exchange.
Visitors at the RoK-Vietnam tourism and cultural festival 2022: (Photo VietnamPlus)
Increasing people-to-people exchanges between the two nations are the basis for promoting economic, cultural and educational cooperation, and relationships between their localities.
The 250,000-strong Vietnamese community in the RoK and the 200,000 Koreans in Vietnam serve as a very important foundation for the bilateral ties.
The successful cooperation between the two countries has brought about a new position for each other at regional and global forums, and there is great potential for the two sides to work together on regional and international issues, with a focus on regional peace, cooperation and stability, strengthening of the rule of law and multilalteralism, and settlement of conventional and unconventional security issues./.
