Vietnam and the RoK signed on April 20, 1992, an agreement on the exchange of the liaison offices between the two countries. On December 22 the same year, they signed a joint statement on the establishment of the ambassadorial-level diplomatic relations and the RoK opened its embassy in Hanoi.
This marks an important milestone that ushered in a new era of trustworthy, friendly and effective cooperation between the two countries. In March 1993, Vietnam opened its embassy in Seoul.
In November 1993, the RoK opened its General Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. In August 2002, the two countries issued a joint statement on the “comprehensive partnership in 21st century” on the occasion of Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong’s visit to the RoK. In October 2009, the bilateral relationship was elevated into a “strategic cooperative partnership” on the occasion of RoK President Lee Myeong Bak’s visit to Vietnam.
The two sides are maintaining various political and diplomatic dialogue mechanisms, making practical contributions to the building of mechanisms and platforms and working out concrete cooperation orientations between the two countries in important fields related to the national interest of each country and contributing to ensuring security, peace and stability in the region.
Weathering numerous difficulties and obstacles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides have been regularly maintaining the exchange of high-level delegations in many forms suitable to the situations of the pandemic. Noteworthy are the Vietnam visit by Speaker of the RoK National Assembly Park Byeong Seuk (October 31 – November 4, 2020) and the RoK visit by Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue (December 2021). RoK Foreign Ministers Kang Kyung-wha and Chung Eui-yong also visited Vietnam right in the context of the complicated developments of the COVID-19, while Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son visited the RoK in early 2022, starting a series of the activities marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the bilateral relationship.
After 30 years, the RoK has become one of the partners of the leading importance of Vietnam, ranking first in investment, second in ODA, and third in trade.
Over the recent past, despite the numerous negative impact of the COVID-19, bilateral economic relation has still maintained its growth momentum. To the end of November 2021, trade between the two countries reached 70.38 billion USD, marking an increase of 20 percent over the same period in 2020, even as they were still suffering from the COVID-19 impact. In 2021, RoK FDI into Vietnam reached 7.4 billion USD, an increase of 85 percent compared to 2020.
The people-to-people exchanges between the two countries have been unceasingly strengthened and consolidated, becoming a linkage and creating a push for the development of the relations between the two countries. At present, the Vietnamese community in the RoK tops 240,000 people and the RoK community in Vietnam, about 200,000. Vietnam is selected by many RoK people if they are to live in a foreign country. It is also a major magnet to RoK tourists. By November 2019, RoK visitors to Vietnam topped 4.3 million arrivals, marking an increase of 23.1 percent year on year and occupying 23.8 percent of the total to Vietnam.
In the pandemic fight, the two countries have been providing each other with effective support to jointly weather the difficulties and successfully realise the dual goal of containing the pandemic and developing the economy in the necessary situations. The people and government of the RoK provided Vietnam more than 1.4 million dose of vaccines against the COVID-19. RoK firms and friendship organisations have donated over 20 million USD to Vietnam’s vaccine fund, along with many donations in kind to support Vietnam’s pandemic fight. Vietnam has also helped RoK firms stabilise their production in the context of the pandemic, and facilitated the RoK to ensure the supply of urea in service of the production of the fluid treating the gas emitted by diesel- fuel automobiles.
The potential for cooperation between the two countries remains huge. They have set a target of raising bilateral trade to 100 billion USD by 2023 and 150 billion USD by 2030 in the direction of more balanced trade and encouraging RoK companies to expand their investment scales in Vietnam and, at the same time, increasing the involvement level of Vietnamese firms in the supply and value chains of RoK companies.
The geo-politic and geo-economic situations in the region are seeing new, rapid and dynamic changes, the trends of new technology, energy and management in the post-pandemic period, coupled with the new resources and international positions of the two countries, are promising new cooperation directions between the two countries and in the new linkage frameworks in the region. Trustworthy, effective and mutually beneficial cooperation remains a key for Vietnam and the RoK to develop their relations and turn their bilateral cooperation into a resource for the development of their national economy, thus helping ensure an environment of peace and stability in the region and all over the world.
