January 18, 2023
HANOI — Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Vương Đình Huệ and Speaker of the Republic of Korea National Assembly Kim Jin-pyo had official talks on Tuesday in Hà Nội as the latter is on an official visit to Việt Nam.
The Vietnamese top legislator appreciated the fact that this was the highest level delegation from RoK to visit Việt Nam after the two countries upgraded ties to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2022 on the celebration of the 30th diplomatic relations.
Huệ said that the visit would promote the roles of the two countries’ parliaments in improving bilateral ties.
The RoK NA leader expressed his pleasure in paying an official visit to Việt Nam in the first year of the next 30 years of cooperation between the two countries, congratulating Việt Nam on its high GDP growth of 8.02 per cent in 2022. Kim said that there were more than 60,000 Vietnamese students studying abroad, along with more than 80,000 multicultural Vietnamese – Korean families living in the RoK.
In order to effectively implement the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Việt Nam and the RoK, at the talks, the two NA leaders agreed to strengthen and consolidate political trust, as political trust is the foundation for solving bilateral problems, with the ultimate goal of further strengthening cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, investment and people-to-people diplomacy.
The two leaders highly appreciated the fact that the two sides had maintained the existing defence and security dialogue mechanisms and pledged to keep this momentum.
NA Chair Huệ suggested that the Korean counterpart support the two sides in implementing concrete cooperation in the field of defence industry, technology transfer, and human resource training; thanked the RoK for the transfer of the third naval ship to Việt Nam and hoped that the RoK would continue to provide more naval ships to help Việt Nam improve law enforcement capabilities at sea.
He also sought further RoK assistance in overcoming war consequences, including the Mine Action Project for Việt Nam-RoK Hòa Bình Village for the 2022-26 period.
The two leaders shared the goal of raising bilateral trade to US$100 billion in 2023 and $150 billion in 2030, in a more sustainable and balanced manner, fully utilising existing bilateral and multilateral trade agreements.
Agreeing that as supply chains and trade investment show signs of difficulty and disruptions, the two NA leaders said it would be necessary to continue to strengthen the existing supply chains and set up new ones, especially semiconductors and other key products of the two countries, especially cooperation in digital transformation, ensuring equitable energy security to realise each country’s commitments at COP26.
According to NA Chair Huệ, with regards to energy transition, the two sides can cooperate on renewable, green energy, especially ensuring the harmony of benefits and costs, global and regional just transition, as well as the interests of each nation.
The National Assembly of the two countries can organise forums to create a legal framework to form an ecosystem in digital and energy transformation, while Việt Nam stands ready to exchange with RoK in other sectors.
Regarding ODA, NA Chair Huệ highly appreciated the fact that the RoK continues to consider Việt Nam as a strategic partner in ODA cooperation, thanked the goodwill of RoK for providing Việt Nam with ODA of up to $16 billion, but so far, Việt Nam has not been able to access this capital due to technical barriers.
NA Chair Huệ suggested that the National Assembly of RoK reconsider this issue, and the Korean counterpart said the parliament would make more of an effort to make this capital more efficient and realistic in the future.
NA Chair Huệ said that Việt Nam would remove difficulties and obstacles for the railway project No.3 as proposed by the Speaker of the RoK NA. The Vietnamese NA would pay attention to supervising and promoting the implementation of cooperation projects between the two Governments.
Regarding the field of labour cooperation, a very important pillar in the bilateral ties, NA Chair Huệ urged Korea to expand the list of sectors that can accept new Vietnamese workers – especially in information technology, highly-skilled labourers, as well as to train Vietnamese labourers to meet the demands of the Korean enterprises.
Regarding tourism, culture, education cooperation, citizen protection and locality-to-locality cooperation, the two sides agreed that both countries need to facilitate the entry of each other’s citizens into the other, including the resumption of flights and travel tours, with COVID-19 now under control.
The Vietnamese top legislator thanked the RoK side for always supporting and helping the Vietnamese community in RoK, hoping that the RoK will continue to support and protect their legitimate interests.
NA Chair Huệ affirmed that Việt Nam was always interested and ready to make active contributions to the process of denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, supporting efforts to maintain peace in Northeast Asia through dialogue and peaceful means.
RoK NA leader Kim said the country would continue to strengthen maritime security cooperation with Southeast Asian countries, including Việt Nam, in order to ensure security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation in the South China Sea (called East Sea by Việt Nam) based on international rules and regulations.
He also announced that it would send a delegation to attend the Global Young Parliamentarians Forum hosted by Việt Nam, scheduled for September this year. — VNS