Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, his spouse and ahigh-ranking delegation of Vietnam left Hanoi on November 24 for the ASEAN-Republicof Korea (RoK) Commemorative Summit and the first Mekong-RoK Summit, and anofficial visit to the RoK.

The trip from November 24-28 is made at the invitation of President of the RoKMoon Jae-in.

PM Phuc’s official visit to the RoK is the first by a Vietnamese PM in sevenyears, and is of significance to strengthening cooperation between the twocountries in the new situation.

The ASEAN-RoK Commemorative Summit was proposed by the RoK at the 20thASEAN-RoK Summit in November 2018 in Singapore, aiming to celebrate the 30thfounding anniversary of bilateral relations (1989-2019). It will take place onNovember 25 and 26.

The summit offers an opportunity for leaders of ASEAN member countries and theRoK to review the 30-year collaboration and promote orientations for theASEAN-RoK strategic partnership in the next three decades on the basis of thepresent fruitful and comprehensive ties.

The ten-member group and the RoK established ties in 1989 and advanced theirrelationship to the level of comprehensive cooperative partnership in 2004,which was elevated to a strategic partnership in 2010. Two years later, the RoKdispatched its ambassador and established a mission to the ASEAN.

The Mekong-RoK cooperation was initiated at the 13th ASEAN-RoK Summit onOctober 29, 2010 when Korean President Lee Myung-bak proposed organising theMekong-RoK Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in order to enhance political andeconomic ties between Mekong River Basin countries and the RoK, narrowdevelopment gaps and push ahead with the building of the ASEAN Community.

The first Mekong-RoK Summit will take place in Busan on November 27, under theco-chair of the Korean President and the Thai Prime Minister.

Vietnam the RoK set up diplomatic ties on December 22, 1992. Over the past 27years, the bilateral relationship has made comprehensive strides, and beenmaintained at different levels.

Vietnam opened its embassy in Seoul in March 1993. In November the same year,the RoK also opened its Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City. In August 2011,the two sides issued a joint statement on the comprehensive partnership in the21st century on the occasion of the visit to the RoK by the then President TranDuc Luong. In October 2009, the two countries lifted their relationship to astrategic cooperative partnership during the visit to Vietnam by the thenPresident Lee Myung-bak.

The RoK is one of Vietnam’s leading important partners, ranking first ininvestment, second in official development assistance (ODA) provision afterJapan, and third in trade after China and the European Union.

Besides, the RoK is Vietnam’s second largest labour importer and Vietnam is thesecond largest labour exporter of the RoK. Currently, more than 48,000Vietnamese guest workers are working in the RoK.

Over the past years, the RoK has emerged as a major source of tourists toVietnam. In the first nine months of 2019, the number of Korean visitors to theSoutheast Asian nation was over 3.14 million, up 22.5 percent year-on-year.Currently, there are more than 1,000 direct flights between the two countrieseach month.

Statistics from the Korean side show that as of June 2019, there were more than216,000 Vietnamese in the RoK. The number of Koreans in Vietnam was over150,000, almost businesspeople./.