Workshop looks into public diplomacy in Vietnam, RoK

Hanoi (VNA) – A workshop on public diplomacy in Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) was held by the Institute for Northeast Asian Studies under the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences in Hanoi on June 27.

The event was part of a research project on the enhancement of public diplomacy towards the Vietnam - RoK comprehensive strategic partnership.

Dr. Tong Thuy Linh from the Institute for Northeast Asian Studies, head of the project, said the workshop aimed to suggest appropriate solutions and policies to promote people-oriented public diplomacy, thus helping to strengthen and foster the friendship and multifaceted cooperation between the two countries.

She noted that public diplomacy of Vietnam may consist of two main components, information for foreign services and culture for foreign services, creating methods for communicating with and impacting the public as well as non-state entities in other countries to convey messages and build up positive images of Vietnam to serve the realisation of diplomatic targets and help guarantee national interests.

Meanwhile, Dr. Hoang Minh Hang from the Institute for Northeast Asian Studies said that before 2010, the RoK had mainly carried out cultural diplomacy via the Korean Wave (Hallyu). It implemented public diplomacy in various forms, but public diplomacy was often equated with cultural diplomacy. In 2010, the RoK Government officially released the definition of public diplomacy, and one year later, it appointed the ambassador of public diplomacy for the first time.

Therefore, public diplomacy was upgraded and became one of the three pillars of the RoK’s diplomacy, together with economic diplomacy and political diplomacy. The RoK’s determination to elevate public diplomacy was shown in the issuance of the Public Diplomacy Act in February 2016, and this act went into effect in August the same year, Hang added.

At the workshop, participants discussed the difference between cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy, the Public Diplomacy Act of the RoK, and the Vietnamese approach to public diplomacy, among others. They also gave several suggestions about the issue./.