VN backs RoK’s New Southern Policy
VGP – PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed Viet Nam’s backing of the New Southern Policy of the Republic of Korea (RoK) while attending the 20th ASEAN-RoK Summit on November 14 in Singapore.
At the summit, leaders hailed the positive outcomes of the strategic relations and comprehensive cooperation between ASEAN and the RoK.
The RoK remains the leading economic partner of ASEAN and has invested US$ 5.3 billion into the bloc.
The two two-day trade turnover reached US$ 152.7 billion in 2017. ASEAN and the RoK are striving to raise the figure to US$ 200 billion by 2020.
Cooperation has been accelerated in numerous scopes from politics-security to economics, trade, investment, cultural exchange, and people-to-people exchange.
ASEAN advocated the RoK’s New Southern Policy and efforts by President Moon Jae-in in promoting the relations with ASEAN on the pillars of peace, prosperity and humans.
The two sides agreed to beef up cooperation in the fields where they share interests, like sea security, cyber security, science-technology, renovation, creativity, natural disaster and climate change response, people-to-people exchange, education, and others.
The ASEAN leaders welcomed the encouraging progress in the Korean peninsula, including the positive outcomes of the Inter-Korea Summit and the US-Korea Summit.
In return, President Moon Jae-In spoke highly of ASEAN’s role in the region and the achievements the bloc attained in regional building and connection.
On the occasion, President Moon announced that his country would double the ASEAN-RoK fund, launch initiatives to boost people-to-people exchange, provide US$ 100 million for regional infrastructure development, improve ASEAN’s digital capacity, and assist the bloc to be prepared to respond to natural disasters and ensure cyber security.
Addressing the event, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc voiced his support for the RoK’s New Southern Policy.
He agreed with the view to accelerate cooperation in the fields where the RoK has strength and ASEAN has demand, like e-commerce, green technology, scientific renovation, and smart urban.
The PM underlined the necessity to boosting cooperation in politics and security on a par with the development of the economic and socio-cultural pillars, and increasing cultural and sport exchanges among youths./.
By Khanh Phuong
