At the reception for Korean Ambassador Choi Young Sam, President To Lam expressed his delight at witnessing that the Vietnam-Korea relationship is at its best stage of development; political trust between the two countries is constantly being strengthened; cooperation in various fields has developed remarkably, demonstrated by the fact that the two sides have upgraded to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

The President affirmed that the Party, State and People of Vietnam always attach importance to and wish to, together with the Government and People of the Republic of Korea, continue to develop the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with the Republic of Korea more deeply, substantially and effectively.

Appreciating the efforts of the Ambassador and the Korean Embassy in coordinating with relevant Vietnamese ministries and branches to promote bilateral relations in recent times, President To Lam emphasized a number of major directions for Ambassador Choi Young Sam to promote implementation during his term, including maintaining regular visits and contacts at high and all levels in many flexible forms to strengthen political trust between the two countries; effectively implementing the Action Program to implement the Vietnam - Korea Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The two sides will promote defense and security cooperation to develop commensurate with the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, including the field of preventing transnational crimes and non-traditional security crimes. At the same time, they will promote the early completion of the goal of increasing trade turnover to 100 billion USD, towards the target of 150 billion USD by 2030; encourage Korean enterprises to continue expanding their investment scale in Vietnam, thereby creating a new wave of investment in areas such as high technology, semiconductor manufacturing, digital transformation, green transformation, renewable energy; strengthen cooperation in education, culture, tourism, local cooperation and people-to-people exchange between the two countries; expand cooperation and support each other on international and regional issues of mutual concern.

For his part, Ambassador Choi Young Sam expressed his honor to pay his respects to the President in his capacity as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Korea to Vietnam; and affirmed that he will do his utmost to contribute to promoting the bilateral relationship to develop more practically and effectively in all fields.

Ambassador Choi Young Sam expressed his wish to cooperate closely with relevant Vietnamese agencies to implement cooperation agreements between the two countries, especially in areas such as promoting high-level delegation exchanges and all-level delegation exchanges between the two countries; enhancing substantive cooperation in the fields of economics, trade and investment, especially in areas that Vietnam is interested in and Korea has strengths in, such as developing liquefied natural gas (LNG) thermal power plants, nuclear power plants, and building strategic infrastructure in Vietnam; expanding substantive cooperation in the defense industry between the two countries; and enhancing cooperation in protecting citizens in each country.

The Ambassador emphasized that he will actively participate and support Vietnam to successfully organize the Partnership for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 (P4G) Summit in Vietnam in April 2025.

At the meeting with Canadian Ambassador Shawn Steil, President To Lam affirmed that Vietnam attaches importance to the Comprehensive Partnership with Canada and will continue to coordinate with Canada to implement the commitments of the two countries' senior leaders to deepen the Vietnam-Canada relationship on the basis of mutual benefit, contributing to maintaining peace, stability and development in the region and the world. Vietnam highly appreciates Canada's policy of attaching importance to relations with the Asia-Pacific region and supporting the role of ASEAN in regional cooperation mechanisms.

The President thanked Canada for its condolences on the passing of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, especially Governor General Mary Simon's letter of condolences to the President.

Ambassador Shawn Steil congratulated Vietnam on its economic and foreign affairs development and achievements in recent years, and expressed his honor to witness the positive developments in Vietnam-Canada relations.

The Ambassador affirmed that Canada attaches importance to the Comprehensive Partnership with Vietnam in Canada's strategy for the Indo-Pacific region, and pledged to continue to coordinate with ministries, sectors and localities of the two countries to deepen the relationship; support ASEAN's central role in the regional structure and will continue to promote the ASEAN-Canada Strategic Partnership and coordinate with Vietnam in addressing regional and international issues of mutual concern.

The two sides reviewed the positive results that the two countries have achieved since upgrading their relationship to Comprehensive Partnership in 2017 in all areas, especially delegation exchanges, political-diplomatic cooperation, economic-trade cooperation, defense cooperation, and law enforcement. Ambassador Steil affirmed that Canada continues to be a leading development supporter for Vietnam, focusing on the areas of climate change response, green transformation, etc.

The President acknowledged and appreciated the efforts of both sides in organizing activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations (1973 - 2023) and the 5th anniversary of the establishment of the Comprehensive Partnership (2017 - 2022).

To maintain the positive momentum of the relationship, the President suggested that the two sides continue to coordinate to promote the exchange of high-level delegations between the two countries; promote existing cooperation mechanisms such as the Political Consultation at the Deputy Foreign Minister level, the Joint Committee on Economy and Trade, as well as the favorable framework of the CPTPP Agreement for bilateral trade and investment relations.

The President highly appreciated the Ambassador’s initiatives to promote cooperation in areas of mutual interest such as economy and trade, innovation and creativity, energy transition, human resource training, defense cooperation, transnational crime prevention and cyber security, etc.; and suggested that both sides promote sports cooperation activities, especially football, as well as cultural and artistic programs, contributing to strengthening the friendship and understanding between the two peoples.

On this occasion, President To Lam, through Ambassador Shawn Steil, respectfully invited Governor General of Canada Mary Simon to officially visit Vietnam at an appropriate time.