The General Secretary's visit to Korea was a success in all aspects.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and his wife hosted a State banquet to welcome General Secretary To Lam and his wife on a State visit to South Korea. (Photo: Thong Nhat/VNA)

On the afternoon of August 13, General Secretary To Lam and his wife, along with a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, successfully concluded their State visit to South Korea from August 10-13 at the invitation of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and his wife.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son gave a press interview on the results of the high-level visit of General Secretary To Lam and his wife.

Vietnam News Agency (VNA) respectfully introduces the interview content:

- Could the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister please tell us about the significance and outstanding results achieved during the State visit of General Secretary To Lam and his wife to Korea?

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son: At the invitation of President of the Republic of Korea Lee Jae Myung and his wife, General Secretary To Lam and his wife, along with the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation, had a very successful visit to Korea, achieving many important and substantive results.

During his four days in Korea, General Secretary To Lam had a very rich and diverse working program with talks, meetings, contacts, and meetings with high-ranking Korean leaders, politicians, economic and cultural organizations, scientists, and meetings with the Vietnamese community in Korea and Korean friends who love Vietnam.

The outstanding results of General Secretary To Lam's State visit to Korea this time are clearly demonstrated in the following five aspects:

Firstly, the visit deepened political trust, consolidated good personal relations between the two countries' senior leaders, and reached important common perceptions on comprehensively promoting and further deepening the Vietnam-Korea Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Impressed by Vietnam's important development achievements, international position and prestige, President of the Republic of Korea Lee Jae Myung emphasized that the great country of Vietnam, the great Vietnamese people, steadfast in the struggle for national liberation, will continue to achieve new miracles in national development.

General Secretary To Lam meets with leaders of several major Korean corporations. (Photo: Thong Nhat/VNA)

Throughout the bilateral talks, meetings and contacts, senior Korean leaders always considered Vietnam as a leading important partner in implementing foreign policy in the region and expressed their willingness to accompany and support Vietnam in achieving its development goal of becoming a developed, high-income country by 2045.

General Secretary To Lam affirmed that Vietnam consistently attaches importance to its relations with the Republic of Korea and hopes that the cooperation between the two countries will continue to have new, more substantial, effective, closer and sustainable developments, commensurate with the framework of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

At the same time, the two sides agreed to further promote visits and exchanges between high-ranking leaders of the two countries, expand cooperation through Party, State, Government and National Assembly channels; and strengthen cooperation in all fields commensurate with the framework of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Second, the working trip achieved many outstanding results, especially in the fields of economic cooperation, trade, investment, science and technology, innovation and human resource training.

In the context of many difficulties and instability in the world's politics and economy, General Secretary To Lam proposed to the Korean side to shape a new strategic vision, shifting from economic cooperation to Vietnam-Korea economic linkage, including promoting cooperation to jointly develop production chains, opening each other's commodity markets and supporting Vietnamese enterprises to participate more deeply in the global supply chain of Korean enterprises, thereby striving to achieve the target of bilateral trade turnover reaching 150 billion USD by 2030 in a balanced and sustainable direction.

General Secretary To Lam also called on Korean enterprises to continue to identify Vietnam as a global production base, a strategic destination for building research and development centers, while expanding investment in key areas and building specialized industrial production complexes along the value chain in Vietnam.

It can be seen that the enthusiasm and passion of experts, scientists and businesses from both countries want to contribute more effectively to the fields of innovation, science and technology in Vietnam and economic links between the two countries.

Third, the visit opened up new cooperation opportunities between the two countries in a number of key areas such as science and technology, strategic infrastructure development, high-tech agriculture, and sustainable development cooperation and climate change response.

The two countries' senior leaders agreed to make science and technology, innovation, digital transformation and human resource training new pillars of bilateral relations; agreed to coordinate in developing strategic technology sectors, promote cooperation in the fields of digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and build digital innovation policies.

Fourth, the two leaders emphasized that social foundation and people-to-people exchange are the glue that firmly binds the friendship and understanding between the two countries.

On that basis, the two sides pledged to promote cultural cooperation, education, human resource training, people-to-people exchange, support for Vietnamese-Korean multicultural families and cooperation between localities of the two countries in the coming time.

The two sides agreed to extend the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on sending and receiving workers to work in Korea under the Employment Permit System (EPS); coordinate to promote exchange, cooperation, promotion and communication activities on culture, sports and tourism; further expand tourism cooperation as well as simplify travel procedures for citizens of the two countries.

On this occasion, the General Secretary highly appreciated the contributions of the community of more than 350,000 Vietnamese people living in Korea, and asked Korea to create the most favorable conditions for Vietnamese people to live and work stably and make more practical contributions to the relationship between the two countries in the new period.

Fifth, on the multilateral level, the two sides agreed to cooperate closely and increase mutual support at international and regional forums and organizations such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Mekong Sub-region, etc.; and are ready to actively participate in the international community's joint efforts to address traditional and non-traditional security issues as well as global challenges.

On this occasion, the two sides also discussed international and regional issues of mutual concern and supported each other to successfully organize the APEC Summit in Korea in 2025 and in Vietnam in 2027.

It can be said that the State visit to Korea by General Secretary To Lam and his wife and the Vietnamese High-Level Delegation was a great success in all aspects.

Through this visit, the two sides also signed 50 cooperation documents between ministries, branches, organizations, enterprises and localities of the two countries on cooperation in the fields of energy, industry, digital infrastructure, digital transformation, finance, banking, services, culture, tourism, training of high-quality human resources and strengthening cooperation between Vietnamese localities and Korean enterprises.

The important results achieved during the visit have become a major milestone opening a bright new chapter of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries in the new era.

General Secretary To Lam and South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min Seok witnessed the signing of cooperation agreements between units and enterprises. (Photo: Thong Nhat/VNA)

- During the visit, General Secretary To Lam and Korean leaders reached many important agreements in many fields, which are an important foundation to bring bilateral relations between Vietnam and other countries to a new height. Could the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister tell us what specific directions Vietnam will have to realize these agreements?

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son: In line with the spirit of the Joint Statement and the results that the two countries' senior leaders agreed upon and achieved during this working trip, in the coming time, Vietnam and Korea will promote the implementation of the following specific directions and measures:

Firstly, continue to increase exchanges and contacts between high-ranking leaders of the two countries to continue to consolidate the good feelings between the leaders and people of the two countries and deepen political trust through cooperation through the channels of the Party, Government, National Assembly, ministries, branches, localities and people of the two countries.

Immediately after the talks with President Lee Jae Myung, General Secretary To Lam requested Vietnamese ministries, sectors, and localities to urgently review and improve the effectiveness of existing cooperation mechanisms and propose expanding and establishing necessary dialogue mechanisms to quickly and conveniently handle issues that may arise in cooperation.

Second, on the basis of the Joint Statement on deepening the Vietnam-Korea Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the two sides will cooperate closely to concretize the high-level common perceptions and agreements signed during the visit; bring science and technology cooperation to a new level, becoming a new pillar of the relationship, in accordance with the needs and interests of both sides.

In terms of economy, trade and investment, the two sides will propose directions to soon complete the target of bilateral trade turnover reaching 150 billion USD by 2030 in a balanced and sustainable manner; at the same time, the two sides will continue to create a favorable environment, support and resolve difficulties for Korean enterprises investing in Vietnam as well as support Vietnamese enterprises investing in Korea.

Third, in the exchange and promotion of culture, sports and tourism, Korean authorities will share with Vietnam their experience in developing the entertainment industry and support Vietnam in building and implementing a strategy for developing the cultural industry; and support Vietnam in establishing a Vietnamese Cultural Center in Korea.

In labor, education and people-to-people exchange cooperation, the two sides will study and coordinate to expand the occupations and scale of receiving Vietnamese workers in Korea; strengthen cooperation between Vietnamese educational institutions and leading Korean universities and enterprises to create high-quality human resources in line with the development orientation of the two sides.

General Secretary To Lam suggested that unions and friendship organizations should strengthen their role as bridges and support exchanges between unions, localities and people of the two countries to be more vibrant and substantive, commensurate with the framework of the comprehensive strategic partnership.

Fourth, the two sides continue to maintain coordination, cooperation and mutual support in regional and international mechanisms and forums such as ASEAN, the United Nations, APEC, the Mekong Sub-region, etc.

The two sides will actively coordinate to successfully organize the Mekong-Korea Summit at the end of 2025; the APEC Summit in Korea in 2025 and in Vietnam in 2027.

- Sincerely thank Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son./.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/chuyen-tham-han-quoc-cua-tong-bi-thu-thanh-cong-tot-dep-tren-moi-phuong-dien-post1055494.vnp