Vietnam - Korea relations are built on 2 special foundations

According to Vietnamese Ambassador to South Korea Nguyen Vu Tung, the fact that South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol chose Vietnam as the first country in Southeast Asia to visit and he came to Vietnam within only 6 months when the two countries had just upgraded relations while the President of our country had just visited Korea, This implies that the idea of President Yoon Suk Yeol visiting Vietnam was conceived very early. "It shows the special nature of the relationship between the two countries," said Ambassador Nguyen Vu Tung.

Vietnam-Korea relations are built on two foundations, especially intertwined trust and interests. This visit is first and foremost meant to express and contribute to both of those platforms.

In terms of building trust, high-level visits and exchanges are always an effective way to enhance trust, first of all through personal acquaintance with senior leaders. The Vietnamese Ambassador to South Korea said that since President Yoon came to power for more than a year, phone calls and meetings between leaders of the two countries have taken place intensively, and the President of Vietnam visited Vietnam as vivid evidence of the special importance of the Korean Government and the President personally to the two countries' relations. This marks another important milestone in the relationship between senior leaders of the two countries, thereby opening up more frequent exchanges/visits between ministries, sectors, localities, businesses and people of the two sides.

In terms of intertwining benefits, the visit and the concrete results achieved during the visit (MoU, agreements, contracts, action programs...) really demonstrated the new height of relations under the new framework of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. The relationship between the two sides has been expanding and deepening, for the benefit of the two countries, as well as people, localities and businesses.

The visit took place in the context of particularly good development of Vietnam-Korea relations in all aspects, in all key fields, from politics and diplomacy to security, defense, economy, education and training, science, technology, culture, sports, tourism, labor, people-to-people exchanges...

Based on the effective implementation of the high-level agreements reached by the two countries during this visit, the relationship between the two countries will grow, thereby highlighting the special nature of the bilateral relationship. Therefore, the visit will definitely contribute to creating a new impetus for cooperation between the two countries in the coming time.

Special significance is also evident in the context of the visit. The event took place in the context that Vietnam is implementing the goals of the XIII Party Congress, including the goal of developing the country to 2030 into a developing country with modern industry and high average income; and by 2045 to become a developed, high-income country.

Regarding foreign affairs, Vietnam persists in the foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, friendship, cooperation and development, multilateralization and diversification of relations; promote deepening relations with partners, especially with strategic partners, including Korea.

It can be seen that welcoming the delegation of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to the State level shows that Vietnam attaches high importance to the special significance of Vietnam-Korea cooperation in general and the importance of this relationship in the overall national development strategy in general and Vietnam's foreign policy in particular.

The visit also took place in the context of Korea's achievements in national construction and development in general and many achievements in socio-economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic in particular. South Korea has become one of the 10 largest economies in the world.

In foreign affairs, Korea is promoting many important policies, notably the Global Key Country (GPS) policy vision, the Indo-Pacific Strategy, and the ASEAN-Korea Solidarity Initiative. At the same time, Korea also registered its candidacy for important positions in multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations Security Council and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. "Therefore, Vietnam's welcome to the President of the Republic of Korea for a State visit is also a message that Vietnam supports and believes that the Government and people of Korea will successfully implement future development policies and goals, contributing to peace, prosperity and stability of the region and the world" - Vietnamese Ambassador to Korea Nguyen Vu Tung emphasized.

More importantly, in the context of complex and unpredictable geopolitical and geo-economic dynamics recently, the trip further highlighted the importance of Vietnam-Korea cooperation in the following fields:

First, cooperation among small and medium-sized countries in upholding international law and stabilizing the international order based on basic principles of international law. These are important bases for safeguarding the interests of small and medium-sized countries as well as for them to contribute to the consolidation of international peace, stability and cooperation in the context of increasing great power competition, globalization challenged by global issues and protectionism.

Second, enhancing ASEAN's central role in building and strengthening regional security mechanisms as well as regional peace and prosperity based on Vietnam's increasing initiative and proactivity in ASEAN, Vietnam's role in coordinating ASEAN-Korea relations in the next 2 years, and South Korea's policy of increasingly prioritizing cooperation with ASEAN through the Indo-Pacific strategy and ASEAN solidarity initiative (KASI) recently adopted by the Yoon administration.

Third, to involve third parties in Vietnam-Korea bilateral cooperation in issues of common interests such as the East Sea, stable peace, cooperation on the Korean peninsula and the Mekong sub-region, building stable supply chains, combating climate change, etc.

Thus, this visit not only demonstrates the special nature of the relationship and creates new momentum but also contributes to opening up a new regional and international space for Vietnam-Korea bilateral cooperation.

Set a target to raise Vietnam-Korea bilateral trade turnover to 100 billion USD by 2023

In his invitation letter to President Yoon Suk Yeol, President Vo Van Thuong stated: "I look forward to exchanging concrete measures with the President to promote stronger, more substantive and comprehensive development of relations between the two countries in the coming time, contributing to maintaining peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and in the world".

As the Ambassador of Vietnam to Korea, Mr. Nguyen Vu Tung has some expectations from the content that the two countries discussed and agreed on during this trip. According to the Ambassador, in terms of economy and trade, Vietnam and South Korea aim to raise bilateral trade turnover to 100 billion USD by 2023 and aim at 150 billion USD by 2030 in a balanced direction.

Accordingly, cooperation between the two countries in the coming time shows that economic emphasis is the main pillar in the overall cooperation between the two countries with the goal of 100 billion USD of two-way trade and towards the target of 150 billion by 2030 in parallel with improving the trade imbalance.

Ambassador Nguyen Vu Tung said that in recent years, bilateral economic relations have tended to decline due to a sharp decrease in the aggregate demand of the world market for exports from the two countries. However, the situation has recently shown signs of improvement. In this context, Ambassador Nguyen Vu Tung said that the two countries of Vietnam and Korea need to continue promoting economic cooperation activities, focusing on some major directions.

First, the two sides need to continue to effectively exploit the complementary nature of the two economies to promote effective cooperation in traditional areas of cooperation, especially in the fields of labor, manufacturing, finance and infrastructure construction.

Second, businesses of the two countries need to better exploit new opportunities emerging from the socio-economic development strategies of the two sides. Accordingly, the promotion of cooperation under major projects related to the development of new energy, digital technology, green and clean technologies should be highlighted. I would just like that the Government of Vietnam's adoption of Power Plan VIII has opened up many opportunities for large investment projects in clean energy, which is very attractive to Korean businesses.

Third, the two sides need to effectively exploit regional and global free trade agreements (such as RCEP, CPTPP) and new economic cooperation frameworks such as IPEF. In particular, the two countries should pay attention to promoting cooperation in a number of new fields such as exploiting new markets (such as African and Halal markets), participating in building new supply chains, and cooperation in the defense industry.

In addition, the two sides should continue to pay attention to promoting the improvement of the quality of human resources through cooperation in education, training and research, continue to promote institutional reform, aiming at effectively solving problems in administrative procedures.

Ambassador Nguyen Vu Tung also said that it is necessary to further open the Vietnamese goods market to Korea, increase access to Vietnamese goods to distribution chains and platforms in Korea, including e-commerce platforms, and transfer technology for Vietnamese enterprises to participate in the production chain of Korean enterprises.