The recent state visit to the Republic of Korea by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in the first four days of October was highly appreciated by RoK’s leaders. They warmly welcomed him with the highest level of reception for heads of states. The visit’s success is an important milestone, creating a dynamic to comprehensively develop and further deepen the Strategic Cooperative Partnership between Vietnam and RoK.

During his stay in RoK, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong had a very practical and effective agenda. He had talks with RoK’s President Park Geun Hye; met with Prime Minister Jeong Hong Won, National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui Hwa as well as the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the ruling party, Kim Moo Sung.

The General Secretary also visited and delivered a speech at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies; visited Busan City, Samsung Corporation and received leaders of several leading RoK groups, enterprises and associations.

These talks were conducted in an open, friendly, sincere and informative atmosphere with important and practical content related to bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual concern.

During the trip, the two sides adopted a seven-point joint statement putting forward major orientations, goals and measures to intensify cooperation in various fields, especially in politics, foreign affairs, trade, investment and security and defense. Accordingly, the two sides will reinforce senior-level exchanges between the two governments, parliaments, and parties; seek to increase the efficiency of strategic dialogue mechanisms as well as policies of foreign affairs, security and defense.

The two leaders both agreed to further strengthen the inter-governmental committee for better coordination and to take the bilateral relationship to a higher level in the coming time.

The two sides agreed to better economic cooperation, regarding it as the focus of the strategic cooperative partnership and to connect the two economies in the long run for common development and prosperity. They also look for an early conclusion of FTA talks within 2014, making every effort to raise bilateral trade to 70 billion dollars in 2020.

RoK is committed to see Vietnam as an important partner in terms of development cooperation, to prioritise Vietnam regarding ODA provision, to continue to support funding to develop Vietnam’s transportation facilities, to support Vietnam in industrial, agricultural, technological and scientific development, as well as to urge Korean businesses to invest in aspects of Korean advances and Vietnam’s necessity.

South Korea also promised to sign an agreement on labour cooperation with Vietnam to replace the expired one. The two sides will continue to work together in order to support and control each side’s expatriates and speed up discussion on the treaty of mutual legal assistance in civil law and trade.

South Korea pledged to continue support for the Vietnamese community in Korea, especially mixed-culture families, and teach Vietnamese to children of these families.

President Park Geun-hye supported Vietnam’s hosting the APEC Summit in 2017, and its bit for the impermanent membership of the UN Security Council for the term of 2020-2021 and of ECOSOC of 2016-2018

On this occasion, the two sides signed four cooperative agreements on many aspects, including a 12 billion dollar credit programme to assist prioritised development projects in Vietnam. Vietnam’s Communist Party and the Saenuri Party inked a document on cooperation for the 2015-2016 period on the basis of their 2011 Memorandum of Understanding.

Regarding the regional situation, the two sides reclaimed the Vietnam-South Korea Joint communiqué in 2013, Vietnam showed approval of Korean initiatives to boost discussion on tension reduction, peace building toward reunion and peace and cooperation in northeastern Asia. The leaders also highlighted the importance of peace keeping, stability, maritime security and safety and freedom of navigation as well as the necessity of peaceful conflict resolution, international law’s respect, DOC implementation and early realization of COC.

It can be said that the successful visit to RoK by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong served as a dynamic way to drive the Vietnam-RoK relationship into a bright future of development.

RoK is one of the leading economic partners of Vietnam, being the 2nd biggest investor out of 96 entities; the 3rd biggest trade partner, the 2nd biggest ODA donor and also the 2nd biggest tourist destination.

In terms of politics and security, the two countries will maintain regular high level meetings; forming strategic dialogue mechanisms, discussion on foreign policy, defense, security; and continue boosting and intensifying the relationship of friendship and mutual trust.

At the present time, there are 130,000 Koreans living in Vietnam while 70,000 Vietnamese labourers and 5000 Vietnamese students live in Korea. Over 50,000 families of Vietnam and Korea have been connected through marriage.

VNA/VNP