Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and other leaders are to compare notes on international and regional issues of shared concern.

On December 10, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung left Hanoi for Busan for commemorative summit marking the 25th anniversary of ASEAN-Republic of Korea Dialogue Relations and a working visit from December 10-12.

The visit is being made at the invitation of Republic of Korea (RoK) President Park Geun-Hye.

Since the establishment of dialogue relations in 1989, the ASEAN-KoK cooperation have seen constant development over the past 25 years. Both sides set up a comprehensive partnership in 2004, marking a turning point in the strengthened relations between the regional grouping and the Republic of Korea (RoK).

Six years later, the ASEAN-KoK relationship was upgraded to a strategic partnership, opening up a new chapter in relations between the two sides.

Over the past five years, ASEAN and Korean leaders have demonstrated their high determination to promote the all-round ties based on strong political commitments under which they have worked together on implementing an action plan to realize the strategic partnership for the period 2016-2020.

ASEAN and the RoK have always shared concern about the maintenance of peace, security and stability in the region. Notably, the RoK have advocated ASEAN’s stance on the East Sea issue.

The December 11-12 commemorative summit themed “Building Trust, Bringing Happiness”, is to review the cooperation process over the years and outline development orientations for ASEAN-RoK dialogue relations.

ASEAN and RoK leaders will also discuss regional and international issues of mutual concern and issue a joint statement on a vision for their relationship aiming to create a framework for the bilateral strategic partnership in various fields- politics, security, economics, social affairs and culture.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s attendance at the Summit will contribute to promoting the substantial and effective ASEAN-KoK dialogue relations.

On the fringes of the ASEAN-KoK Summit, PM Dung will pay a working visit to Busan with a view to furthering the Vietnam-RoK strategic partnership.

The relations between Vietnam and the RoK have grown considerably in a multitude of fields since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1992 and the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership in 2009.

Along with the sound political relations through annual exchange visits and high-level meetings among senior leaders, the RoK remains one of the leading economic partners of Vietnam with more than 4,000 valid projects capitalized at nearly US$37 billion poured into 18 out of 21 the Southeast Asian country’s economic sectors.

The RoK is Vietnam’s third largest trade partner while the former is the latter’s 9th largest export market.

In the nine months leading up to October, two-way trade reached US$24 billion. Both sides are striving to elevate bilateral trade volume to US$70 billion by 2020 and sign the Vietnam-RoK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by later this year.

The RoK is the second largest bilateral donor of official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam, after Japan, with US$1.2 billion of ODA pledged for the period 2012-2015.

The Northeast Asian country has considered Vietnam to be one of the 26 countries of ODA strategic partnership with three key focal points- green growth, human resource training and infrastructure construction.

Bilateral cooperation in culture, education, tourism and labour is experiencing rapid growth with huge potential for stronger development in the future.

During the working visit to the RoK, PM Dung is scheduled to meet with Korean senior leaders and those from leading Korean economic groups to consolidate political trust and seek opportunities for broader trade links and investment cooperation which will offer new prospects for more vigorous growth of bilateral ties.

VOV/VNN