Since establishing the diplomatic ties in 1992, the relationship between Vietnam and the Republic of Korea has ceaselessly developed and it is raised to comprehensive partnership in 2001.

On December 22 in 1992, a joint declaration on establishing diplomatic ties at ambassador level was signed by the former Vietnamese Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Manh Cam and his counterpart Le Sang Ok. It opened a new page in the relationship between the two countries.

During the official visit by Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong in August 2001, the two countries leaders issued a Joint Communiqué in order to establish a framework of partnership as a comprehensive partnership in the 21st century.

Recently, the two countries have exchanged many high-ranking delegations, especially the visit to RoK by President Tran Duc Luong in Nov 2005 and President Roh Moo-hyun’s visit to Vietnam in Nov 2006. Many other Vietnam-RoK friendship associations were established such as Vietnam-RoK Parliamentarians Friendship Associations, RoK-Vietnam Friendship Association, RoK-Vietnam friendship exchange association and Rok-Vietnam Fund in Seoul and Hanoi.

The first Culture Center of the RoK in the Southeast Asia was founded in Hanoi in Nov 2006.

In economy, RoK is an important partner and one of five countries having biggest economic relationship with Vietnam over the past 15 years. An inter-governmental commission on cooperation in economy and science-technology between the two countries was established in 1993 to promote bilateral economic cooperation.

The two-way trade reached nearly 5 billion US dollars in 2006, an increase of 10 times in comparison to 1992.

RoK is also a leading country in speed and total of investment capitals investing in Vietnam. Till July 2007, RoK had nearly 1460 projects with the total amount of capitals of 9.36 billion US dollars, ranked top in 78 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. RoK’s big corporations such as Samsung, Daewoo, Kumho and LG are all appeared in Vietnam.

For development cooperation, RoK provided and committed to provide 188 million US dollars of preferential credits and 80 million US dollars of non-refundable capitals for Vietnam. RoK will increase its preferential credit for Vietnam to 100 million US dollars per years and 9.5 million US dollars per years in 2006-2009 term. (CPV)