 South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Minh Triet review an honor guard during a welcoming ceremony in Hanoi Wednesday. / Korea Times |
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Minh Triet agreed Wednesday to upgrade their relationship to a "strategic cooperative partnership."
The leaders also agreed to establish dialogue between their defense and foreign ministries to forge cooperative security and political ties, Yonhap News Agency reported, quoting a joint statement issued by Lee and Triet after their summit in Vietnam.
"The leaders of the two countries discussed ways to further improve the Korea-Vietnam relationship that developed so rapidly in such a short period of time since the countries established diplomatic ties in 1992," Lee's presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae said in a press release.
Vietnam is the third nation to establish a strategic partnership with South Korea following China and Russia, according to South Korean officials accompanying their president.
Lee and the Vietnamese president also called for efforts to double their nations' bilateral trade to $20 billion by 2015.
"We two leaders highly evaluated the fact that bilateral trade between our two countries increased 20 times from about $500 million in 1992 when diplomatic ties were established to $10 billion in 2008," they said in the joint statement.
The leaders also agreed to launch a joint study on the feasibility of a bilateral free trade agreement before the year's end.
Lee agreed to recognize Vietnam's Market Economy Status, according to Cheong Wa Dae, a move that could significantly improve protection for Vietnamese businesses and their products in trade with South Korea.
Lee arrived in Hanoi Tuesday as part of his three-nation tour that will also take him to Cambodia and Thailand, where he will attend a regional summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
South Korea and Vietnam will work closely together in international forums, such as ASEAN, to promote their mutual interests, the Cheong Wa Dae press release said.
"Especially for the improvement of the Korea-ASEAN relationship, President Lee called for close cooperation with Vietnam, which will take the chair of ASEAN in 2010," it said.
Lee is also set for talks with Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and the secretary-general of Vietnam's Communist Party, Nong Duc Manh.
