RoK parliamentary leader's visit to step up bilateral parliamentary cooperation

Hanoi, January 12 (VNA) – The official visit to Vietnam by Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of the Republic of Korea (RoK) Kim Jin-pyo from January 12-18 is expected to promote parliamentary cooperation between the two nations in a practical and effective manner, contributing to further deepening bilateral relations. The visit, which will be made at the invitation of Chairman of the Vietnamese NA Vuong Dinh Hue, is the first official visit to Vietnam by the Speaker since he took office in July 2022, and the first visit to Vietnam by a RoK senior leader after the two countries elevated their bilateral relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership in December last year. Vietnam and the RoK officially established diplomatic ties on December 22, 1992. The relations have developed strongly and practically on the basis of political trust, cultural similarity, and geographical proximity. The two sides have maintained good relations in all channels of the Party, the National Assembly, and the Government, with high-level exchanges held regularly in flexible forms. The two sides issued a declaration to upgrade their relations to a “Comprehensive strategic partnership" on the occasion of the State visit to the RoK by President Nguyen Xuan Phuc in December last year. Senior leaders of the RoK always affirm that the RoK considers Vietnam a key partner in implementing its foreign policy in Southeast Asia, and its Indo-Pacific strategy. With this political perception, Vietnam and the RoK have become leading partners in many areas, in which their economic, trade and investment cooperation is both a pillar and also a motivation for pushing up the relations between the two countries. The RoK ranks first in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam; second in ODA cooperation, labour and tourism, and third in trade cooperation. Meanwhile, Vietnam is the biggest economic partner of the RoK in ASEAN, accounting for 30% of investment and 50% of total trade turnover between the RoK and the bloc. Leaders of both nations agreed to promote stable growth of bilateral trade turnover in the direction of balance, maintaining their position as leading trading partners, towards lifting the two-way trade to 100 billion USD by 2023, and 150 billion USD by 2030. People-to-people exchanges have been constantly developing, serving as a solid bridge to foster the Vietnam-RoK relationship. Particularly, amid difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the bilateral cooperation has still developed fruitfully. The RoK was one of the first countries to donate vaccines and medical equipment to help Vietnam. Meanwhile, Vietnam has created the most favourable conditions for Korean enterprises’ production and business activities in the country. The relationship between the two countries’ legislative bodies has been actively consolidated and developed in the spirit of the Cooperation Agreement signed in 2013, significantly contributing to strengthening the bilateral relations between the two countries. The two sides have regularly maintained meetings; online talks; and exchange of delegations of the National Assemblies, and friendship parliamentary groups. Notably, the official visit to the RoK by Vietnamese NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue in December 2021 contributed to further deepening the Vietnam – RoK relations across many fields, especially promoting post-pandemic economic recovery and development in both countries. During the visit, leaders of the two countries’ legislative bodies agreed to develop relations into a model of parliamentary cooperation by establishing groups of friendship parliamentarians, and female and young parliamentarians. The two NAs agreed to closely cooperate and support each other in international and regional inter-parliamentary forums such as the International Parliamentary Union (IPU), the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF), the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership (ASEP), the Meeting of Speakers of Eurasian Countries' Parliaments (MSEAP) and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA). Attention will be paid to promoting the connections of parliamentary groups, and enhance exchanges of delegations and sharing of information on parliamentary activities in each country./.