RoK President Park Geun-hye and Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong review the Guard of Honour during a welcome ceremony in Seoul yesterday. - VNA/VNS Photo Tri Dung
SEOUL (VNS) – Viet Nam regards its strategic co-operative partnership with the Republic of Korea (RoK) as a long-term foreign policy priority, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said during talks with RoK President Park Geun-hye in Seoul yesterday.
The Party leader met with the RoK president as part of his four-day State visit to the country. In an atmosphere of openness, friendship and mutual trust, the two leaders updated each other on news from their respective nations and exchanged views on regional and international issues of common concern. They discussed the future orientation of their bilateral relations as well as measures to strengthen their friendship and co-operation.
Both host and guest expressed delight at the continuous development of bilateral relations since the nations established diplomatic ties in 1992 and commenced a strategic co-operative partnership five years ago.
They agreed that while Viet Nam and the RoK had become important partners and true friends with many shared strategic interests, there was still room to expand this friendship and collaboration. The two leaders consented to increase meetings between high-ranking leaders, Governments, parliaments and political parties in order to enhance mutual understanding and political trust and improve the efficiency of existing strategic and policy dialogue mechanisms in the fields of diplomacy, defence and security. They also agreed to enhance co-operation when it came to defence, military training, capacity enhancement for peacekeeping and marine law enforcement forces, transnational crime and terrorism prevention.
General Secretary Trong and President Park Geun-hye also reached a consensus to consolidate the current Inter-Governmental Committee mechanism in line with their strategic partnership.
The two sides stressed the importance of boosting economic and trade relations with a view to reaching US$70 billion in bilateral trade by 2020 and agreed to complete negotiations on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by the end of this year.
Viet Nam welcomed Korean investments in infrastructure, advanced technology, support and manufacturing industries and agricultural and seafood processing. Meanwhile, the RoK pledged to facilitate Vietnamese imports into the country, particularly agricultural and aquatic products, while encouraging its businesses to invest in Viet Nam. President Park Geun-hye expressed her wish that the Vietnamese side continue to provide favourable conditions for RoK investors in Viet Nam, especially in the fields of energy, infrastructure, transport, finance and banking.
The two leaders agreed to instruct relevant agencies to accelerate negotiations so that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on labour recruitment could be signed in 2014. They also agreed to strengthen bilateral collaboration in the fields of science-technology, education-training, culture, sports, tourism, local co-operation and people-to-people exchanges and pay more attention to the protection of the legitimate interests of Vietnamese nationals living in the RoK and vice versa. President Park Geun-hye affirmed that her government would provide more support for the Vietnamese community and Vietnamese-Korean families in the country.
The two sides also looked at ways to intensify co-ordination and information sharing on regional and international issues via existing co-operation mechanisms, bilateral communication channels and multilateral forums, as well as co-operation in the area of peacekeeping. They highly valued ASEAN-RoK co-operation and welcomed the RoK efforts to promote ties in a practical manner.
During the talks, the RoK President expressed her support for Viet Nam to host the APEC Summit 2017 and applauded the Southeast Asian country’s contributions to the special RoK-ASEAN Summit scheduled for later this year.
Regarding regional development, Viet Nam backed the RoK’s initiatives to boost dialogues, ease tension and build peace and co-operation in the Northeast Asian region.
The two leaders emphasised the importance of maintaining peace, stability, maritime security, safety and freedom in the East Sea. They highlighted the necessity for concerned parties to solve disputes via peaceful means in line with international law and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) while striving towards the early conclusion of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).
Following their talks, Party General Secretary Trong and President Park Geun-hye witnessed the signing of four bilateral co-operation documents on addressing post-war bomb and mine consequences in Viet Nam, ensuring the quality of defence products and services, lending for the building of Vam Cong bridge roads and financial co-operation between Viet Nam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment and RoK’s Eximbank.
Key partners
Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea Chung Hong-Won yesterday agreed to conclude negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement by the end of this year.
PM Chung said his country continued to regard Viet Nam as a key development and investment partner. He said his country would prioritise Viet Nam in terms of Official Development Aid, especially in the fields of energy, infrastructure, science and technology, education and training, and human resources development.
The Party leader replied that Viet Nam welcomed South Korean businesses and would create the best conditions possible for investors to operate in Viet Nam.
Both sides spoke highly of the bilateral co-operation on labour in recent years. They agreed to intensify co-operation in this field, while pledging to provide more support for the Vietnamese community in South Korea, with a special focus on Vietnamese-Korean couples and families.
On the same day, Party General Secretary Trong met the Speaker of the South Korean National Assembly, Chung Ui Hwa, who said the Party leader’s visit would contribute to the intensification and expansion of the strategic partnership.
Chung Ui Hwa said his country was keen to deepen its bilateral ties with Viet Nam.
Trong replied that Viet Nam’s continuous policy was to support a peaceful, stable and nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, praising all efforts and initiatives for dialogue, mediation and co-operation, peace and solidarity between the two Koreas.
He said Viet Nam was ready to co-operate and make contributions to improve the relationship between the two regions for peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia.
He thanked the Korean side for supporting Viet Nam in hosting the 132nd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and extended the invitation of National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung to Chung to attend the event in 2015.
Both sides said it was necessary for the two legislative bodies to exchange information and expertise to realise their agreement signed in 2013, contributing to enhancing the friendship, mutual understanding and trust between the two peoples.
Trong also met Kim Moo-Sung, Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Saenuri Party.
Kim spoke highly of the role of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, saying that under its leadership, Viet Nam would continue to gain achievements in the renewal and development process.
The Party Chief praised South Korea’s development in recent years, to which the Saenuri Party contributed significantly.
He said he hoped that as the ruling political party, the Saenuri Party would continue to foster the Viet Nam-RoK strategic partnership.
Both sides agreed that the co-operation between the Communist Party of Viet Nam and political parties in South Korea, was crucial to ensuring long-standing ties between the two States.
They said they wished to increase the exchange of leadership experience between the two parties.
The two party leaders also witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the two parties for the 2015-16 period.
Later in the day, the Vietnamese Party Chief spoke with professors, lecturers and students of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, which pioneers in teaching Vietnamese and providing studies on Viet Nam.
He underscored the need to ratchet up connectivity for both countries’ sustainable development and prosperity, expressing belief that the students at this meeting will join in realising it. – VNS
Đăng ký: VietNam News