President Moon Jae-in (L) holds hands with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang after their joint press conference at the presidential palace in Hanoi on March 23 (Source:Yonhap) Seoul (VNA) – The State visit toVietnam by President Moon Jae-in of the Republicof Korea (RoK) from March 22-24 was highlighted in an article ran by the KoreaTimes – the RoK’s leading daily newspaper published in English.
With the title “Korea, Vietnam to upgrade relations”, the article stressed thatafter a summit between Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang and President MoonJae-in on March 23 in Hanoi, the two sides agreed to upgrade their bilateralstrategic cooperative partnership into a more comprehensive one and held that Vietnamand the RoK are key partners of each other in trade, investment, diplomacy and people-to-peopleexchange.
According to the article, President Moon said Vietnam is the centre of theRoK’s New Southern Policy, which aims to diversify the RoK’s economicpartnerships beyond the US and China by increasing trade with Southeast Asiannations.
It also quoted President Quang as saying that Vietnam actively supported andwelcomed the RoK government's efforts to resolve the Democratic People'sRepublic of Korea (DPRK)’snuclear issue peacefully and promote inter-Korean talks.
For economic cooperation, the article said the leaders agreed to expand two-waytrade to 100 billion USD by 2020 from the current 63.9 billion USD, adding thatthe two countries signed six memoranda of understanding (MOUs) on trade andeconomic cooperation.
It also cited the joint declaration announced after the summit which said that "thetwo leaders agreed the development of the two nations' relations has createdreciprocal benefits and contributed to peace, stability and prosperity of theregion and the world".
The article stressed PresidentMoon expressed regret over the "unfortunate history between the twocountries," referring to RoK troops' participation in the Vietnam War,adding that this is the first open expression of regret over the issue has beenpublicised.
Meanwhile, an officialfrom the RoK President Palace quoted President Quang as saying that theVietnamese State leader highly recognised the RoK government's sincerity overthe painful history of the Vietnam War, the article said.
In another article, theKorea Times spotlights the participation of President Tran Dai Quang and his RoKcounterpart Moon Jae-in in the RoK-Vietnam Business Forum.
It noted that this is thefirst time a Vietnamese president had taken part in an economy-related eventheld alongside a RoK president's visit, indicating the Vietnamese government'shigh interest in bilateral economic relations.
In his speech at the forum, President Moon said the goal to lift the two-waytrade to 100 billion USD by 2020 cannot be attained by only oneside expanding exports, adding that this can be attained only when the twonations have reciprocal trade and companies of the countries advance into thirdnations by making use of each other's strong points.-VNA
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