Hanoi (VNA) – President Nguyen Xuan Phucand a high-ranking delegation of Vietnam arrived in Hanoi on December 7morning, concluding a successful State visit to the Republic of Korea (RoK)at the invitation of President Yoon Suk-yeol.

This was the first visit to the RoK by Phuc in hiscapacity as President of Vietnam, and also the first by a Vietnamese Presidentover the past 11 years, and the highest-level visit by Vietnamese Party andState leaders to the RoK since the East Asian country had a new President.

Notably, President Phuc was the first foreignhigh-ranking leader to pay a State visit to the RoK since President Yoon tookoffice in May this year.

During the visit, the two leaders agreed to issue a joint statement on upgrading the Vietnam-RoK relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership, opening up a new chapter for the bilateral ties, with a brighter future for both countries and peoples. They  agreed to promote the bilateral tradein a stable and balanced manner, remain leading trade partners of each other,and raise the two-way trade revenue to 100 billion USD by 2023 and 150 billionUSD by 2030.

They also witnessed the signing of many cooperationdocuments between ministries, agencies, localities and businesses of the twocountries.

At the meetings with RoK Prime Minister Han Duck-sooand Speakerof the RoK National Assembly Kim Jin-pyo, the leaders compared notes on cooperationorientations within the framework of the comprehensive strategic partnership inall fields, and expressed their resolve to deepen the bilateral ties.

The Vietnamese President had 12 meetings with nearly30 leaders of Korean groups, banks, financial organisations and investors thatare investing tens of billions of USD in the Southeast Asian nation.

The leader affirmed that the upgrading of the relationshiphelps to raise the mutual political trust and enhance the cooperation framework,thus creating a firm platform for the two countries’ enterprises to run long-termbusiness with a larger scale and gain more successes in the respective markets.

A highlight of the visit was the Vietnam-RoKbusiness forum with the participation of more than 500 delegates andbusinesspeople from the two countries.

In his remarks, Phuc stressed that Vietnam alwayscreates favourable conditions for Korean firms to operate effectively andsustainably in the country.

Apart from agreements reached earlier, asmany as 15 others were officially inked at the forum. The accumulativevalue of the deals, along with commitments and investment proposals made duringthe President’s visit, amounted to nearly 15 billion USD.

During the visit, the President met representatives of the Vietnamese communityin the RoK and hosted receptions for representatives from cultural andfriendship organisations that play an important role in promoting cooperationand people-to-people exchange between the two countries.

He also visited a Vietnamese-Korean multiculturalfamily and held a working session with the authorities of Gwangju city in Gyeonggiprovince, among other activities.

With nearly 30 activities within three days, thesuccess of the President’s visit reaffirmed Vietnam’s foreign policy ofindependence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation, development, and thediversification and multilateralisation of relations./.