In his opening remarks, President of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences Bui Nhat Quang noted the two countries elevated their diplomatic relations, set up in 1992, to a comprehensive cooperative partnership in the 21st century in 2001 and then a strategic cooperative partnership in 2009. They are planning to lift bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership this year.
Highlighting the unceasingly reinforced and expanded relations, he held that Vietnam and the RoK now have new and promising opportunities for cooperation.
The achievements of the 30-year relationship and similarities in strategic interests will serve as an impulse for lifting their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership and cementing the countries’ connectivity for the sake of the two peoples as well as for peace, stability, prosperity, cooperation, and development in the region and the world at large, according to Quang.
Nguyen Thi Thanh, Chairwoman of the Vietnam - RoK Parliamentary Friendship Group, said the RoK is a leading partner of Vietnam in most fields while Vietnam, with a fast growing and dynamic economy, is a focal partner of the RoK in its New Southern Policy.
Both sides should create new driving forces and work out appropriate cooperation orientations and measures in order to further intensify their close-knit connections, she added, recommending increasing high-level contact, improving the effectiveness of dialogue and cooperation mechanisms, and continuing to boost collaboration in politics, diplomacy, defence, security, economy, science - technology, energy, health care, culture, education, tourism, and people-to-people and locality-to-locality exchanges.
For his part, RoK Ambassador Park Noh-wan affirmed the two countries have been cooperating successfully over the last 30 years, and that they have long viewed each other as partners of leading importance in such traditional fields as trade, investment, development cooperation, and tourism.
Vietnam and the RoK are building close partnerships in new aspects like security, economy, health care, climate change response, and defence. They are planning to elevate bilateral ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2022, he noted.
The forum featured three sessions that discussed the 30-year cooperation, the countries’ strategic cooperation in the new international economic - political context, and the prospect, opportunities, and measures for partnership elevation.
Initiated in 2012, the Vietnam - RoK Forum for the Future is an important dialogue channel for the two countries’ policymakers, experts, and scholars. Opinions at the event will be summarised in a recommendation report to be submitted to the countries’ Governments.
