Vietnam-Korea Relations at Best Development Stage

Upon the occasion of the official visit to the Republic of Korea (RoK) by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his spouse, both sides issued a joint press release. Vietnam Business Forum is honored to present the full text of the Vietnam-Korea joint press release.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (L) and Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol 

1. At the invitation of Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Spouse paid an official visit to the Republic of Korea (RoK) from June 30 to July 3, 2024.

On July 2, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo held talks in the atmosphere of friendship and mutual trust. The two Prime Ministers reviewed the progress of bilateral cooperation since the two countries upgraded relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2022; discussed measures to deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership in an effective and substantial manner; reached common perceptions on the remaining important issues.

2. Both sides noted that the relations between Vietnam and Korea are now in the best stage of development since the two countries establish diplomatic ties in 1992; agreed to continue accelerating cooperation across all spheres in accordance with their comprehensive strategic partnership. Both sides agreed to beef up exchanges between the two countries' leaders in diverse and flexible formats through mutual visits and meetings at multilateral forums and conferences while expanding cooperation through the Party, Government, National Assembly, ministries, localities and social strata of the two countries.

Both sides agreed to improve the substance of the two countries' comprehensive strategic partnership; practically implement all the high-level agreements, including the Action program to implement the Vietnam- Korea Comprehensive Strategic Partnership; enhance political, diplomacy, security, defense, and defense industry cooperation and effectively implement the existing mechanisms and agreements; coordinate in resolving non-traditional security issues and trans-national crime; speed up the opening of Vietnam's Consulate General in Busan city, Korea in 2024.

3. Both sides emphasized that Vietnam and Korea have become each other's partners of top importance. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said Vietnam attaches importance to the relations with Korea and expects to further develop the bilateral ties in a substantial, effective and long-term manner on par with the two countries' comprehensive strategic partnership. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo reiterated Vietnam is a key partner in Korea's foreign policy towards the region, including the Indo-Pacific Strategy and the Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiatives (KASI); supporting Vietnam to successfully carry out its industrialization and modernization process to become a developed, high-income country by 2045.

4. Both sides affirmed that economic cooperation is an important pillar contributing to substantive development of the bilateral ties; agreed to work toward raising the two-way trade to US$100 billion in 2025 to mark the 10th anniversary of Vietnam-Korea Free Trade Agreement, and to US$150 billion by 2030 in a balanced and sustainable manner. To achieve the goal, both sides agreed to work closely together to effectively implement their bilateral and multilateral economic cooperation mechanisms such as the Vietnam-Korea Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), including the promptly signing of the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) on the Authorized Economic Operators (AEO) Program this year. The two sides agreed to work together to announce the market opening for Vietnamese pomelos and Korean melons in 2024. In addition, the two Prime Ministers also agreed to step up cooperation in agriculture, forestry and aquaculture such as smart farms, agricultural equipment, sustainable forest management, irrigation modernization, rural development; promote trade in agricultural, livestock and aquatic products.

Both sides agreed to encourage Korean businesses to expand investment in Vietnam, including key and future industries such as digital transformation, green economy, circular economy, semiconductor, and environmentally-friendly energy, biotechnology, 5G network, and smart cities; expand exchanges in the field of small and medium enterprises and startups; deploy human resource training projects in the fields of high technology, digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI). Besides, both sides also agreed to strengthen necessary cooperation in promoting investment by Korean businesses to build a stable core mineral supply chain.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said that creating favorable investment environment is necessary for sustainable trade, investment expansion and enhanced cooperation in industrial field between the two countries, and at the same time, suggesting the Vietnamese side actively support the settlement of tax problems of Korean businesses in Vietnam. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that the Government will continue efforts to create an open and transparent investment environment; affirmed that the Government will create favorable conditions for foreign enterprises, including those from Korea to do stable and long-term business in Vietnam. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo affirmed that Korea will expand support for Vietnamese enterprises to participate more deeply in production and supply chain led by Korean enterprises in Vietnam.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo emphasized that Korea continues to consider Vietnam an important strategic partner for development cooperation. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed Vietnam will cooperate closely to smoothly and effectively implement development cooperation programs worth US$52 million between the two countries in 2024. Both sides also noted that labor cooperation has greatly contributed to mutually beneficial relations between the two countries; welcomed Korean agencies and organizations' assistance for industrial human workforce training in Vietnam; agreed to continue efforts to expand the scale of manpower import from Vietnam in accordance with the Korea's Employment Permit System (EPS) and continue to expand the scale of manpower import for shipbuilding, information technology and service sectors in Korea.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his Korean counterpart Han Duck-soo witness the signing of MoU, outlining a roadmap between the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy to achieve a trade target of US$150 billion

5. Both sides agreed to further boost cooperation in science and technology, especially high technology, research and development, technology transfer. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Korea will assist Vietnam in enhancing science and technology and digital transformation capacity through the second phase of the Vietnam-Korea Institute of Science and Technology Project and the Future Partnership for Research and Development and Innovation Project with a scale of US$30 million over the next ten years.

Both sides share the need to jointly respond to climate crisis; at the same time, agreed to fully implement the Climate Change Cooperation Framework Agreement between Vietnam and Korea, speed up cooperation across fields like policy and technology exchanges, promote private investment for green growth and carbon neutrality by 2050 in each country. Both sides agreed to promote exchanges on cooperation in projects proposed by the Korean side according to Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement.

6. Both sides agreed to work towards the goal of raising people-to-people exchanges to five million people; strengthen cooperation to facilitate the expansion of cooperation in culture, education, tourism and people-to-people exchanges in order to improve mutual understanding and connections. Korea shares its experience to support the development of cultural industry for Vietnam. Both sides agreed to strengthen local-to-local exchanges and cooperation, at the same time, effectively deploy the annual Meet Korea Program organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam in collaboration with the Korean Embassy in Vietnam and Vietnamese localities to boost exchanges between the two countries' enterprises. Both sides agreed to intensify cooperation in protecting the rights and interests of Vietnamese citizens in Korea and Korean citizens in Vietnam; create favorable conditions for multicultural families to integrate into local life; agreed to discuss concrete measures to establish a periodic mechanism for sharing and coordinating policies for their expats.

7. Both sides agreed to continue strengthening coordination and mutual support within international and regional frameworks such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Asia-Europe Meeting, the Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 (P4G) Summit. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo affirmed Korea will coordinate closely with Vietnam for the success of the P4G Summit in Vietnam in 20025.

Both sides agreed to continue effective cooperation within such frameworks like ASEAN-Korea, Mekong-Korea, ASEAN Plus Three, East Asia Summit, ASEAN Regional Forum and ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus (ADMM+). Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh welcomed the Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative of Korea, saying the initiative contributes to enhancing and deepening ASEAN-Korea relations. Both sides consider this to be the basis for common efforts towards the establishment of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between ASEAN and Korea on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of ASEAN-Korea dialogue relations this year.

Both sides reiterated their common stance regarding the Korean peninsula issue as enshrined in the Chairman's Statement of the 24th ASEAN-Korea Summit and shared the common perception that the development of nuclear weapons threatens peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, in East Asia and the world. Both sides called on relevant parties to strictly comply with international obligations and agreements, including the United Nations Security Council's Resolutions, and reaffirmed the importance of the international community's efforts for full implementation of the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. Vietnam welcomed and supported the Korean Government's efforts for denuclearization and peaceful reunification on the Korean peninsula, including the "Bold Initiative".

Both sides reaffirmed the importance of the vision of maintaining peace, stability, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea, particularly affirming the peaceful resolution of disputes on the basis of the common principles of international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982).

8. On the occasion of the official visit to Korea by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, the two Prime Ministers witnessed the exchange of nine cooperation deals between ministries and agencies in the fields like development, trade-investment, small and medium-sized enterprises-innovation-entrepreneurship, environment, competition and consumer protection, education (as attached in the appendix below).

Both sides agreed to the official visit by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh contributes to developing and deepening the Vietnam-Korea Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which is beneficial to peace, stability and development in the region and the world.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh expressed deep gratitude for the cordial, respectful and thoughtful welcome the Korean leaders and people for the Vietnamese delegation, and kindly invited Prime Minister Han Duck-soo to pay an official visit. Prime Minister Han Duck-soo accepted the invitation with pleasure.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh meets with Speaker of the National Assembly of Korea Woo Won-shik

Source: Vietnam Business Forum