 Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. (Photo: VNA) |
Mr. Phuc made the statement at a recent interview granted to Korean media on the occasion of his trip to the Republic of Korea to attend the 30th ASEAN-RoK Commemorative Summit. He said both countries upgraded the relationship to the level of “comprehensive partnership in the 21st century” in 2002 before lifting to a strategic cooperative partnership in 2009.
PM Phuc said that since 2014, ASEAN and the RoK have realised the “joint declaration on future vision of strategic partnership: building trust, bringing happiness,” adding that they have closely coordinated on regional and global issues.
He said trade between the two sides increased from 10 billion USD in 1990 to 160 billion USD last year, underlining the future task to raise the figure to match the great potential of ASEAN and Korea.
Vietnam, as the ASEAN Chair next year, has selected “Cohesive and Responsive” as the theme of the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020, with a focus on enhancing intra-bloc solidarity and promoting the role and contributions of ASEAN to maintaining regional peace, security and stability and taking the lead in coping with external challenges and settling regional and international issues.
Vietnam hopes to receive support and cooperation from Korea while Vietnam is the ASEAN Chair 2020 and a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 term, he said.