President Moon Jae-in, who is currently attending the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, held a summit with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc from 5:10 this afternoon. During their 40-minute talks, they had extensive discussions on a range of issues, including directions for the development of Korea-Vietnam relations, ways to enhance substantive cooperation in trade, investment and infrastructure as well as measures to work together for the resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue and the settlement of peace on the Korean Peninsula.

President Moon noted that this year marked the 25th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two nations, adding that bilateral relations had witnessed remarkable achievements in all sectors such as trade, investment, people-to-people exchanges and cultural cooperation. The President continued to explain that the Korean Government intended to elevate the Korea-ASEAN relationship to the level of that with the four powers that heavily influence the Korean Peninsula. In this context, he suggested that Korea and Vietnam continue to enhance their strategic and cooperative partnership.

Prime Minister Phuc said that his country`s relations with Korea were very important as the nation, a partner in Vietnam`s national development, was the biggest investor, second largest country in development cooperation and third largest trade partner. He went on to express the hope that they would work together to further deepen bilateral relations.

The two leaders noted that trade and investments between the two nations were on a continued rise as evidenced by the fact that total trade and Korea`s accumulated investments in Vietnam had surpassed US$45 billion and US$50 billion respectively last year. In this connection, the two leaders agreed to continue to work together to maintain mutually beneficial cooperation in trade and investments, including the realization of the goal of expanding trade to reach US$100 billion by 2020.

President Moon said that he looked forward to the further revitalization of infrastructure cooperation concerning the semi-high speed railroad system, subway system and energy through an MOU on financial cooperation, which was signed to provide assistance to infrastructure building in Vietnam. As part of efforts to further enhance mutually beneficial cooperation, President Moon suggested that the two nations work together to foster the material and component industry in Vietnam.

Prime Minister Phuc expressed the hope that bilateral collaboration in infrastructure would be upgraded for the continuous development of substantive cooperation. The Prime Minister showed great interest in cooperation on matters related to small and medium-sized companies, saying that it corresponded with the Vietnamese Government’s policy to build a modernized industrial nation, which was being pursued with priority. He added that it was an area to open a new horizon in the mutually beneficial partnership between the two countries. 

President Moon said that he was certain that the APEC Summit hosted by Vietnam in November would be successful and that the Korean Government would actively cooperate in that regard. Expressing his gratitude to the President, Prime Minister Phuc said he was looking forward to seeing him in Vietnam in November.