President Vo Van Thuong (R) and his RoK counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol witness the signing of the two governments' agreement on the loan from the economic cooperation promotion fund for 2023-2030. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - President Vo Van Thuong and his visiting counterpart from the Republic of Korea (RoK) Yoon Suk Yeol witnessed the exchange of 17 cooperation documents across fields between agencies of the two countries after their talks in Hanoi on June 23.

Informing the press about the outcomes of the talks on the same day, the two leaders emphasised that based on the nations’ comprehensive strategic partnership, both sides agreed upon several major orientations to promote bilateral relations in the time to come.

The Presidents concurred that in the bilateral diplomatic relations, established more than three decades ago, have seen remarkable progress with important milestones, including the upgrades from comprehensive partnership in 2001 to strategic partnership in 2009 and comprehensive strategic partnership in 2022.

President Thuong elaborated that the leaders reached a consensus on further promoting cooperation in politics and external affairs, and maintaining regular exchanges, contacts, and dialogues of delegations at all levels, especially the high level.

The two presidents at the press conference (Photo: VNA)

Both sides shared a common perception on concretising the framework of comprehensive strategic partnership in defence and security; and pushing substantive cooperation in technology transfer, transnational crime combat, terrorism fight, and response to non-traditional security challenges.

Both leaders highlighted the need for joint efforts to make economic cooperation more effective, striving to soon achieve the goal of raising the bilateral trade to 100 billion USD and then to 150 billion USD by 2030 in a balanced and sustainable manner. Vietnam welcomed Korean enterprises’ new investments and investment expansions particularly in such priority areas as key national and BOT (build-operate-transfer) projects regarding thermal power plants, liquefied natural gas (LNG), high-tech electronics and semiconductors production, big data, biotechnology and smart city development. It wished the RoK to focus on transferring source technology to Vietnam.

The two sides said they will continue their close collaboration in effectively implementing the RoK’s ODA projects in Vietnam. The RoK agreed to further expand the scale of non-refundable assistance to Vietnam, particularly in research and development (R&D), innovation and creativity.

It is also necessary to promote the expansion of cultural, educational, and tourism exchanges, enhance mutual understanding and trust among different social strata, and create favourable conditions for Vietnamese and Korean citizens, they noted.

Both sides concurred to continue supporting ASEAN's stance on ensuring security and safety of navigation and overflight in the East Sea in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Vietnam remains concerned about and closely monitors the situation on the Korean Peninsula, and is ready to promote and participate in the denuclearisation process here.

For his part, Yoon stated that the sides agreed to enhance strategic cooperation in the fields of diplomacy and security and affirmed their commitment to deepening their strategic relations through the mechanism of regular dialogue between the two foreign and defence ministers.

He said the RoK will provide Vietnam with a non-refundable aid worth 200 million USD for the 2024-2027 period, focusing on the areas of environment, climate change, health care, education, and digital transformation. It also plans to support joint research cooperation between the two countries with 30 million USD over the next decade, aiming to support Vietnam's concerted effort for scientific and technological innovation, he added.

Both presidents agreed that the RoK will continue to support Vietnam in accessing core and modern technologies and implementing the second phase of the Vietnam - Korea Institute of Science and Technology (VKIST) - a symbol of future-oriented development cooperation between the two nations.