Việt Nam, South Korea eye upgrading ties, lift trade to $150b by 2030: Presidents

Vietnamese President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc has phone talks with President-elect of the Republic of Korea on Wednesday. — VNA/VnExpress News Photo Thống Nhất

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and President-elect of Republic of Korea (RoK) Yoon Suk-yeol on Wednesday held phone talks on various aspects of bilateral relations.

On behalf of the State and people of Việt Nam, President Phúc congratulated his counterpart Yoon on being elected as the 20th President of the Republic of Korea, and conveyed greetings of General Secretary of Vietnamese Communist Party Nguyễn Phú Trọng and Vietnamese leaders to the RoK President-elect.

President Phúc highly valued the important achievements the two countries have made in the past 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992 in many bilateral and multilateral areas.

Currently, the two sides have become each other’s strategic cooperation partners with an increasingly profound level of trust and mutual understanding, substantive and extensive cooperation.

Phúc also thanked the RoK Government for the timely support of medical equipment and vaccines to help Việt Nam deal with COVID-19 outbreaks.

On this occasion, President Phúc cordially invited the RoK President to visit Việt Nam.

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, for his part, thanked General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng and President Phúc for their congratulatory messages, stressing that the bilateral relations are at the highest levels ever.

He affirmed that he always attaches importance to ties with Việt Nam and wishes that the two countries would continue to grow closer, underlining his commitment to promoting RoK businesses to invest and expand their investment scale in Việt Nam, especially in key fields.

The newly elected President also noted he would work to facilitate the entries of Vietnamese citizens into RoK, promote tourism cooperation and strengthen people-to-people exchanges between the two countries.

President-elect Yoon also expressed appreciation for Việt Nam’s role in the ASEAN region and thanked Việt Nam for its contributions to peace, stability, cooperation and development on the Korean Peninsula.

He also gladly accepted President Phúc’s invitation and has invited President Phúc to visit Korea in 2022.

Leaders of the two countries agreed to continue maintaining delegation exchanges and high-level contacts in various appropriate manners in the new normal; support the strengthening of security, defence, and industry cooperation; closely coordinate in organising activities for the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Việt Nam and Korea (1992-2022); and work towards upgrading the relationship to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”.

President Phúc and his RoK counterpart emphasised the need to coordinate in implementing measures to realise the goal of raising bilateral trade to US$100 billion by 2023 and $150 billion by 2030, effectively capitalising on existing trade deals such as the Việt Nam-Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

Việt Nam and RoK will also continue to work closely on regional and international issues and coordinate to support Việt Nam on its coordinating role of the ASEAN-RoK relations in 2021-24 term.

The Vietnamese President is the sixth foreign leader to speak with Yoon since his election on March 10, 2022, after US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. — VnExpress News