Vietnam - Korea exchanged 17 cooperation documents

Immediately after the talks on June 23, President Vo Van Thuong and President of the Republic of Korea Yoon Suk Yeol and high-ranking representatives of the two countries witnessed the exchange of 17 signed cooperation documents in various fields by relevant agencies of the two countries.

The two leaders then informed the press of the results of their talks. President Vo Van Thuong said that he agreed with President Yoon Suk Yeol to continue promoting political and foreign affairs, maintaining regular exchanges, contacts, and delegations at high and all levels.

According to VOV, the two sides agreed on the common perception of the need to concretize the framework of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in the field of defense and security; promote substantive cooperation and technology transfer in the field of defense industry.

Regarding economy , trade and investment, President Vo Van Thuong said that the two sides will make efforts to bring economic cooperation to a new level, deeper and more effective; strive to soon complete the goal of increasing bilateral trade turnover to 100 billion USD and towards the target of 150 billion USD by 2030 in a balanced and sustainable manner.

Vietnam welcomes Korean enterprises to make new investments and expand their investment scale, especially in priority areas such as national key projects and BOT projects to build thermal power plants, liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plants, high-tech electronic equipment manufacturing, semiconductors, big data, biotechnology, and smart cities; focusing on transferring source technology to Vietnam.

President Vo Van Thuong. Photo: Hai Nguyen

In terms of official development assistance (ODA), the two sides agreed to continue to closely cooperate to effectively implement Korea's ODA support for Vietnam; Korea continues to expand the scale of non-refundable aid for Vietnam, especially in the fields of research and development (R&D) and innovation.

In particular, the two sides were pleased with the signing of the Korea Economic Promotion Fund (EDPF) Cooperation Agreement worth 2 billion USD to implement large-scale development investment projects in the fields of transportation and urban infrastructure in Vietnam.

President Vo Van Thuong welcomed the signing of the extension of the Memorandum of Understanding on sending and receiving workers to work in the Republic of Korea (EPS); agreed to create favorable conditions in simplifying procedures for residence registration and granting work permits for experts and workers of one country in the other.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said that the two sides agreed to strengthen strategic cooperation in the fields of diplomacy and security. The two sides affirmed that they will deepen the strategic relationship through agreeing to establish a new mechanism for regular talks between the two foreign ministers following the recent agreement on a mechanism for regular talks between the two defense ministers.

The Korean government will actively support Vietnam in improving its maritime security and order capacity based on the memorandum of understanding on maritime security signed this time. At the same time, Korea will expand defense technology cooperation with Vietnam based on the increasingly consolidated political trust between the two countries.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. Photo: Hai Nguyen

The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in the mineral supply chain, especially the two countries shared the common understanding of the potential for cooperation between the two countries related to the exploitation of rich rare earth resources in Vietnam ; agreed to build a foundation for integrating core mineral supply chains by establishing a Core Mineral Supply Chain Center.

At the press conference, the two leaders agreed to promote the expansion of cultural, educational and tourism exchanges, enhance mutual understanding and trust among all social classes; create favorable conditions for each other's citizens; further promote cooperation between localities and the Meet Korea program.

The Korean government will continue to expand support for Korean language training in Vietnam and the Korean Government Scholarship Program to enhance exchanges with future generations who will lead the bilateral relationship.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said that South Korea will provide non-refundable aid worth 200 million USD in the 2024-2027 period for the fields of environment, climate change, healthcare, education, digital transformation, etc., especially a plan to support joint research between the two countries worth 30 million USD in the next 10 years, to support Vietnam's focus on scientific and technological innovation.

The two leaders highly agreed that Korea will continue to support Vietnam in accessing core and modern technologies; and implement the second phase of the Vietnam-Korea Institute of Science and Technology (VKIST) project - a symbol of future-oriented development cooperation between the two countries.

Laodong.vn