South Korean President: Seoul will strengthen future-oriented cooperation for the goal of prosperity with Vietnam

In an interview with the press during his State visit to Vietnam, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol affirmed that the two countries will unite to expand cooperation and deepen bilateral exchanges for common prosperity.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks at a press conference announcing the upgrade of Vietnam-South Korea relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership. (Photo: Nguyen Hong)

At the invitation ofPresident of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Vo Van Thuong, President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife Kim Keon Hee paid a State visit to Vietnam from June 22-24.

Continuously promote and develop bilateral relations

Responding to the press during the visit, President Yoon Suk Yeol affirmed that, for more than 30 years, since officially establishing diplomatic relations in 1992, Vietnam and Korea have continuously built and nurtured an exemplary cooperative relationship of mutual benefit in all fields.

"It is important that we are not satisfied with the results achieved, but constantly promote the development of relations between the two countries to be more practical and future-oriented, in line with the rapidly changing domestic and international environment," President Yoon Suk Yeol emphasized.

In this spirit, in 2022, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the official establishment of diplomatic relations, the two countries upgraded their cooperative relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. This demonstrates the determination of the governments and people of the two countries to unite, expand the fields of cooperation and deepen bilateral exchanges.

President Yoon Suk-yeol expressed his wish to first strengthen security cooperation with Vietnam so that the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region can be firmly "rooted." The Republic of Korea will continue to cooperate with Vietnam on maritime security. At the same time, he hoped to expand bilateral cooperation in the defense industry based on Korea's superior technological capabilities that have been proven in the world market.

President Yoon Suk Yeol affirmed that Korea will continue to strengthen future-oriented cooperation for the goal of mutual prosperity.

Korea will continue to support the Vietnam-Korea Institute of Science and Technology (VKIST), the largest independent non-refundable aid project ever by the Korean government, to help VKIST become a center for science and technology development in Vietnam. In particular, during this state visit to Vietnam, the Korean President will announce a new aid project to help Vietnam enhance its capacity for science and technology research.

The world is currently facing complex crises of a completely different magnitude than before. Vietnam and Korea must work together to overcome these challenges. In particular, the supply chain of essential minerals, energy, digital transformation, smart cities, and climate change response are areas that the Korean and Vietnamese governments will focus on cooperating in the future.

This year marks a strong start for the “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” between the two countries. With that in mind, President Yoon Suk Yeol hopes that his State visit to Vietnam this time will open a new chapter in the cooperative relationship between the two countries.

The second economic dialogue at the Deputy Prime Minister level between Vietnam and the Republic of Korea on March 10. (Source: VNA)

Vietnam is a key partner of Korea.

In December 2022, the leaders of the two countries set a target of increasing bilateral trade turnover to 150 billion USD by 2030. However, due to the impact of the global economic recession, bilateral trade turnover this year is growing negatively.

To restore the dynamism of bilateral trade, President Yoon Suk Yeol said a large-scale economic delegation will accompany him on this visit to Vietnam.

According to President Yoon Suk Yeol, Vietnam is a key country in Korea's Indo-Pacific Strategy, therefore, cooperation between the two countries needs to be further developed.

The scope of cooperation needs to be expanded from manufacturing to services in sectors such as finance, distribution, information technology, cultural content and other service sectors. The cooperation method also needs to be implemented in the direction of expansion and taking advantage of each other's strengths. Korea plans to expand cooperation to enhance Vietnam's technological capacity in the industrial sector.

The South Korean leader also emphasized that cooperation in future goals such as achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and digital transformation is also very important, so he hopes that the future generations of the two countries will play a key role in these future goals.

The President of the Republic of Korea also reiterated the wish of President Ho Chi Minh - the father of the Vietnamese nation, for "an independent country, free people, everyone has food and clothes, everyone can study" and said that now, Vietnam is proactively and actively participating in international cooperation activities for world peace; at the same time, aiming for the goal of "becoming a developed country by 2045".

This goal of Vietnam is also in line with the “Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative (KASI)” that President Yoon Suk Yeol announced at the “Korea-ASEAN Summit” held in November 2023 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to realize Korea’s Global Pivotal State (GPS) vision.

GPS is a demonstration of Korea’s determination to play an active role and contribute to the regional and international community in line with its new position and strength. Accordingly, Korea will seek creative and close cooperation options with Vietnam, its comprehensive strategic partner, in multilateral organizations and consultation mechanisms such as the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum, and the Partnership for Green Growth and the Global Goals (P4G) to contribute to the peace and prosperity of the international community.

This visit to Vietnam is Mr. Yoon Suk Yeol’s first bilateral visit to a Southeast Asian country since taking office. Therefore, the visit is meaningful in officially launching the full implementation of the “Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative (KASI)” with Vietnam, a key partner of Korea.

According to President Yoon Suk Yeol, Korea wishes to strengthen practical and future-oriented cooperation with ASEAN countries and the Mekong region. Korea will expand practical cooperation in future-oriented areas such as digital transformation, climate change, health care and medicine on the basis of respecting “ASEAN Centrality” and ASEAN’s needs.

At the same time, Korea will strengthen strategic cooperation in areas of mutual interest to Korea and ASEAN countries, such as maritime security and the defense industry. Korea will also continue to support the development and narrowing of the development gap in the Mekong region, an issue that Vietnam attaches great importance to.

To demonstrate a strong determination to strengthen Korea-ASEAN relations, Mr. Yoon Suk Yeol hopes that Korea-ASEAN relations will be elevated to the level of “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the establishment of Korea-ASEAN relations in 2024.

After the Korea-ASEAN Summit scheduled to be held in September this year, the Korean government will propose specific initiatives to ASEAN countries to achieve this goal.

President Yoon Suk Yeol shared: "I would like to sincerely thank Vietnam, as the coordinator of the Korea-ASEAN dialogue relations, for its excellent role as a bridge between Korea and ASEAN countries. I hope that in the process of implementing the 'Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative (KASI)' and in order to achieve the goal of establishing a comprehensive strategic partnership between Korea and ASEAN next year, Korea and Vietnam will strengthen cooperation and dialogue even more closely. I believe that through this, the two countries will be able to contribute more to the peace and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region, including ASEAN."

Meeting with Korea in the Northern Region 2023 on May 18. (Photo: Viet Nguyen)

Nurturing the future generation

According to President Yoon Suk Yeol, people-to-people exchange between the two countries is an area in which his father (Mr. Yoon Ki Joong - Honorary Professor of Yonsei University, founding member of the Applied Statistics Department of Korea) also made many contributions, so he personally has very new emotions during this State visit to Vietnam.

President Yoon Suk Yeol's father, with a firm belief that exchanges between future generations are extremely important for the development of relations between the two countries and a desire to contribute to academic exchanges with Vietnam, supported graduates from the National Economics University in Hanoi and the University of Economics in Ho Chi Minh City to study abroad at Yonsei University's International College in 1993, right after the two countries officially established diplomatic relations.

Mr. Yoon Suk Yeol said that over the past 30 years, thanks to the valuable efforts of all social classes in the two countries, people-to-people exchange activities between the two countries have made great strides.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, nearly 5 million people from both countries visited each other each year and there were over 500 direct flights each week. Needless to say, this was the largest scale of people-to-people exchanges that Korea had ever had with a Southeast Asian country.

Last year, when daily life resumed, Koreans still made up the largest number of foreign tourists visiting Vietnam. This summer, Koreans still said that Vietnam was the most ideal tourist destination. Vietnamese pho and Vietnamese coffee have now become a familiar part of Korean people's daily lives.

Currently, there are about 170,000 Koreans living in Vietnam. This is also the largest Korean community among Southeast Asian countries. There are currently about 6,500 Korean-Vietnamese families in Vietnam and over 80,000 Korean-Vietnamese families living in Korea.

Since Prince Ly Long Tuong, a descendant of the Ly Dynasty in Vietnam, came to Korea, Vietnam and Korea have maintained “in-law relations” for the past 800 years. Now, it is not an exaggeration to say that the people of the two countries are “one family”.

President Yoon Suk Yeol affirmed that the Korean government will provide institutional support so that people-to-people exchanges between the two countries can develop further. During his visit to Vietnam this time, he will join hands with the top leaders of Vietnam to ensure that people of the two countries can visit each other conveniently and have a safe and happy life.

In particular, Korea will increase support to expand exchanges between future generations of the two countries. Korea will also expand support so that the young generation of Vietnam can access high-quality Korean language training programs in Vietnam and expand opportunities for more Vietnamese students to study in Korea.

"I believe that as our future generations understand and appreciate each other more, the future of relations between the two countries will become brighter and brighter," the South Korean President expressed.

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