President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and President Yoon Seok Yeol - Photo: VGP

Would you rate the outstanding results of the President's state visit to Korea this time?

The State visit to Korea by President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and high-ranking Vietnamese delegation was very successful.

The visit took place in the year marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Korea. This is also the highest-level visit of our Party and State leaders to Korea after President Yoon Suk Yeol came to power, and President Nguyen Xuan Phuc was the first foreign leader to be received by President Yoon Seok Yeol according to the state ceremony since taking office.

The Korean side, especially President Yoon Seok Yeol, gave the President and our delegation a solemn but warm and sincere welcome.

President Yoon Seok attached great importance to the visit, repeatedly emphasizing that "the President is his first state guest". The Korean leaders all considered the visit to be of great significance, creating a premise for further implementation of the two countries' cooperative relations on both bilateral and multilateral levels.

The Korean leader consistently affirmed that Vietnam is a key partner in the implementation of the "Free, Peaceful and Prosperous Indo-Pacific Strategy" and the "Korea-ASEAN Solidarity Initiative of the Republic of Korea", pledged to support close cooperation between the ministries and sectors of the two countries in implementing the common perception of the two countries' senior leaders as well as the agreements signed by the two sides.

The most outstanding result of the visit was that President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and President Yoon Suk Yeo announced the upgrade of the two countries' relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and issued a Joint Statement between Vietnam and Korea on the visit. .

The upgrade of relations to the level of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is a historic milestone, opening a new, stronger and more substantive development period for the two countries' relations.

In addition, during the visit, the two sides also achieved many important common understandings on major directions and specific measures to bring the two countries' relations to development in accordance with the spirit of the new relationship framework.

Also within the framework of the visit, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended the Vietnam-Korea Business Forum with the participation of more than 500 representatives from businesses of the two countries; approached nearly 30 leaders of Korea's leading corporations, banks and financial institutions, investors. Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh and leaders of ministries, branches and localities had meetings and contacts with partners to discuss specific fields of cooperation. During the visit, with the witness of President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, President Yoon Suk Yeol and leaders of the Government, ministries, agencies and businesses of the two sides signed 24 cooperation documents, including 16 cooperation agreements, covenant commitments, new and expanded investment proposals with a total estimated value of about 15 billion USD.

Could the Minister clarify the content of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and orientation for implementation in the coming time?

Over the past 30 years, the relationship between Vietnam and the Republic of Korea has made remarkable progress, political trust has been increasingly strengthened, cooperation in various fields has become increasingly substantive, in-depth and understanding. The friendly exchange between the peoples of the two countries has deepened. Those great achievements as well as the determination to deepen the relationship are an important basis for the two sides to decide to upgrade the two countries' relations to the level of "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership".

The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership can be understood as cooperation between Vietnam and South Korea will be comprehensively strengthened and expanded  in all fields, from politics-foreign affairs, security-defence, economic, trade, investment, to education, science and technology, humanities-society exchanges... Especially those relationships and cooperation aspects will go further into depth, practicality and effectiveness in the near future, including:

Firstly, to further promote visits and exchanges between the two countries' senior leaders through flexible and diverse forms; strengthen and deepen mechanisms for exchange and dialogue between agencies of the Central Government and local governments, between the National Assembly, political parties, organizations and social classes of the two countries; Effectively deploy mechanisms for cooperation, dialogue and exchange between agencies of the two countries.

Secondly, economic, trade and investment cooperation will continue to be the foundation and motivation of the Vietnam - Korea Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the two sides are determined to expand and deepen trade economic cooperation, in which immediate measures are taken to increase bilateral trade turnover to 100 billion USD by 2023 and towards the target of 150 billion USD by 2030; diversify cooperation in fields such as labor, health, culture, education, science and technology...

Third, promote cooperation of defense and defense industry, cooperation in the field of security, including maritime security and coast guard, contributing to peace, stability and development of the region and In the world;

Fourth, strengthen coordination to respond to global challenges, non-traditional security issues, energy security, food security, economic security, and cooperation in marine environment protection; at the same time, agree to strengthen joint response capacity to emergency situations.

Fifth, continue to coordinate viewpoint on international issues of mutual interest and common interests; agree to closely coordinate in international and regional forums and mechanisms of mutual interest and participation.

 Sixth, along with the development of cooperative relations between the two countries, people-to-people exchanges will develop faster, stronger and more diverse than before. Accordingly, the key tasks of the two countries in the near future are: promoting exchanges and strengthening friendship between localities, ministries and people of the two countries as well as strengthening coordination in supporting and protecting citizens.

Upgrading the relationship to the level of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership will be a motivation to further strengthen political trust, deepen mutual understanding, and create a favorable basis and environment to promote cooperation in various fields, especially economic cooperation. With the important achievements achieved in the past 30 years, the interest and efforts of both peoples, I believe that the relationship and cooperation between Vietnam and Korea will develop more and more brilliantly in all fields, bringing benefits to the people of the two countries; contribute to peace, stability, cooperation and prosperous development of the region and the world.

A prominent content of the visit is to promote human-society exchanges. Could the Minister tell me more about this?

Promoting people-to-people and humanities-society exchanges is a key content of President Nguyen Xuan Phuc's State visit to Korea this time. This is also the concern and priority of the leaders of both countries.

The friendship between the two peoples derived from hundreds of years ago, when the Ly Vietnamese family line settled in Korea, or the friendly exchanges between delegation of envoy Phung Khac Khoan of Dai Viet and delegation of the envoy Ly Tuy Quang of North Korea and especially has been actively promoted since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1992.

After 30 years, now, the bond between the people of the two countries is closer than ever: between the two countries there are more than 1000 flights back and forth in a month, nearly 5 million people visit each other, more than 70 local couples establish friendly and cooperative relations, about 250,000 people of the two countries live in each other's countries, especially including 60,000 Vietnamese and Korean bride and groom couples. The typical cultural features of this country such as spring rolls, ao dai, Vietnamese noodle soup, kimchi, Kpop, and Hanbok (Han bok) of Korea have become familiar to the people of the other country.

People-to-people exchanges not only enhance understanding between individuals, but also enhance understanding between the two nations in all aspects.

During this visit, the leaders of the two countries emphasized the need to further promote exchanges between the two countries, considering it an important factor in promoting the Vietnam-Korea relationship and friendship. As soon as he arrived in Korea, President Nguyen Xuan Phuc met with representatives of the Vietnamese community in Korea and friendship organizations such as the Korea-Vietnam Friendship Association, the Korean Cultural Exchange Association, the Ly Hoa Son family line of Vietnam in Korea.

During the meetings, the President asked the Vietnamese community in Korea to uphold the tradition of solidarity, mutual love, unity and support for each other, promoting the role of linking the two nations; Friendship associations need to further strengthen their mission of acting as a bridge and supporting exchanges between mass organizations, localities and people of the two countries to be more bustling, substantive, commensurate with the framework of the Partnership. The comprehensive strategy between the two countries has just been announced to be upgraded.

The enterprises of the two countries are also not only the active nucleus of promoting economic cooperation between the two countries, but also contribute to enhancing exchanges and mutual understanding between businesses, mass organizations and localities of the two countries, leading to practical benefits for the people of the two countries. They are important objects that the Governments of the two countries pay more attention and support to in the coming time.

It can be said that the results of the visit are not only politically successful but also have profound social and humanistic meanings, meeting the expectations of the people and businesses of the two countries. This is also an important milestone and motivation to promote the deepening, stable and sustainable cooperation relationship between the two countries, for the common interests of the two peoples, actively contributing to the maintenance of the bilateral relationship. maintain peace and stability, and promote cooperation and development in the region and in the world./.