Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s official visit to the Republic of Korea (RoK) from June 30 to July 3 is expected to help consolidate political trust and deepen the strategic cooperation between the two nations, RoK Prime Minister Han Duck Soo said in an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) on the threshold of the visit

According to the news agency, PM Han highlighted that the visits by high-ranking leaders of the two nations have contributed significantly to their close ties, elaborating Vietnam and the RoK which have built the world’s leading exemplary cooperative relations over the past 30 years and become important trade partners of each other with two-way trade amounting to nearly 100 billion USD and expected to reach 150 billion USD by 2030.

This is the first official trip by a high-ranking Vietnamese official since the two nation set up their comprehensive strategic partnership in 2022, the RoK PM said, adding 2024 is the third consecutive year that high-level visits are arranged between the two countries which illustrates their close relationship.

According to PM. Han, as Vietnam is a key partner of the RoK government in its Korea – ASEAN Solidarity Initiative (KASI) and the Indo-Pacific Strategy, the RoK wants to step up the win-win and practical partnership with the Southeast Asian nation to ensure peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific amidst rapid changes in the region.

To achieve the goal, it is significant to enhance strategic exchange and contact between key leaders of both sides, and PM Chinh’s visit is a good opportunity. Besides, the two sides need to capitalize on their cooperation mechanisms such as dialogues between the foreign ministers, he recommended.

It is necessary for them to bolster the bilateral ties extensively in key areas, including economy and trade for economic recovery, he said, holding that as they are inseparable partners in sustainable economic development, they should expand the existing cooperation to other fields of economic security, science-technology, climate change, human resources training, and culture.

Touching upon global issues, the RoK PM said the RoK government, penning its strategic vision to become a global pivotal state, is striving to contribute more to the global freedom, peace, and prosperity, while Vietnam, with its increasing position, is expected to play a larger role in the international arena. Therefore, the two sides, as comprehensive strategic partners of each other, have great demand for further cooperation in regional and international issues.

The RoK highly values Vietnam’s support for the country to peacefully handle the nuclear problem of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, he said, expressing his hope that the two nations will continue working on the issue.

For the climate change response cooperation, he said he believes that the two nations could play a key role in turning climate crisis into green growth and other new opportunities.

As leading signatories to the 2015 Paris Agreement, Vietnam and the RoK have opened up market for carbon reduction sector, while accelerating the transition to environmentally-friendly energy.

He went on to say that people-to-people exchange has been a motive for the sustainable relations between the two countries, highlighting the Vietnamese and Korean communities, with 200,000 people in each nation, have served as a bridge that contributes to foster the bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, science-technology, and human resources development.