RoK President’s Vietnam visit expected to tighten bilateral ties

Vietnam and the RoK established diplomatic ties on December 22, 1992. They set up their comprehensive strategic partnership in August 2001, and agreed to lift the ties to a strategic cooperative partnership in October 2009.

The bilateral political and diplomatic relations are strong, which is reflected through regular high-level visits and meetings.

In 2006, an agreement on cooperation between the two legislatures was signed, an important legal document for both sides to develop their friendship and cooperation.

The nations also established important security-defence cooperation mechanisms, including a security dialogue and defence dialogue at the deputy ministerial level.

In terms of economics, the Vietnam-RoK free trade agreement, which became effective on December 20, 2015, has opened a new chapter in bilateral economic ties.

The RoK is currently one of Vietnam’s most important economic partners, ranking first in terms of investment, and second in development cooperation, trade and tourism.

Two-way trade jumped from US$500,000 in 1992 to US$61.5 billion in 2017, of which US$14.8 billion came from Vietnam’s exports, up 30 percent from the previous year, and US$46.7 billion from the Southeast Asian country’s imports, a year-on-year increase of 45.3 percent.

The two countries are working to raise the turnover to US$100 billion by 2020.

In terms of foreign direct investment, the RoK ranks first among 125 nations and territories pouring capital into Vietnam, with total registered capital hitting US$57.7 billion as of late December 2017.

The RoK also provided Vietnam with US$1.2 billion in official development assistance for Vietnam in 2012-2015, and a US$1.5 billion loan for the country during 2016-2020.

In agricultural cooperation, it has supported Vietnam in implementing the new-style rural area model, notably the Happiness Programme carried out in the northern province of Lao Cai and central Quang Tri province.