South Korea, Vietnam to “strengthen co-operation”

HANOI – South Korea’s President, Moon Jae-in, in Vietnam on a State visit, has vowed to bolster bilateral ties between Seoul and Hanoi. He proposed upgrading Seoul-Hanoi ties to a “comprehensive partnership relationship” from the existing “strategic cooperation partnership relationship”.

Moon held a summit meeting with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, following which the two leaders announced a “joint declaration to usher in a new 25 years of history between Korea and Vietnam”.

In the joint declaration, the two countries agreed to host summit meetings on a regular basis and to develop bilateral business co-operation.

Moon said that the volume of trade between the two countries last year expanded more than 40% to US$64 billion, while the number of tourists going between the two countries jumped more than 50% to a record 2.7 million in 2017. 

Dubbing Vietnam as “a core partner for Seoul’s New Southern Policy”, Moon said: “I would like to upgrade our bilateral relationship a further notch to become a comprehensive partnership relationship, as next year our two countries will mark the 10th anniversary of forging our strategic cooperation partnership relationship.” 

The two countries agreed to expand Korea’s contribution to infrastructure works, such as road and airport construction projects, in Vietnam, and to work together in jointly responding to the evolution of the fourth industrial revolution.  www.korea.kr (ATI).