Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and President-elect of Republic of Korea (RoK) Yoon Suk-yeol on March 24 held phone talks on various aspects of bilateral relations.
On behalf of the State and people of Vietnam, President Phuc 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 Nguyen Phu Trong and Vietnamese leaders to the RoK President-elect.
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| Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc has phone talks with President-elect of the Republic of Korea on Wednesday__Photo: Thong Nhat/VNA |
President Phuc 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.
Phuc also thanked the RoK Government for the timely support of medical equipment and vaccines to help Vietnam deal with COVID-19 outbreaks.
On this occasion, President Phuc cordially invited the RoK President to visit Vietnam.
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, for his part, thanked General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Phuc 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 Vietnam 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 Vietnam, 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 Vietnam’s role in the ASEAN region and thanked Vietnam for its contributions to peace, stability, cooperation and development on the Korean Peninsula.
He also gladly accepted President Phuc’s invitation and has invited President Phuc 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 organizing activities for the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Korea (1992-2022); and work towards upgrading the relationship to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”.
President Phuc and his RoK counterpart emphasized the need to coordinate in implementing measures to realize the goal of raising bilateral trade to USD 100 billion by 2023 and 150 billion by 2030, effectively capitalizing on existing trade deals such as the Vietnam-Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
Vietnam and RoK will also continue to work closely on regional and international issues and coordinate to support Vietnam 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.- (VNS/VLLF)
