Nguyễn Vũ Tùng, Việt Nam's former Ambassador to the Republic of Korea. — VNA/VNS Photo

Nguyễn Vũ Tùng*

HÀ NỘI — The Việt Nam–Republic of Korea (ROK) Comprehensive Strategic Partnership has reached another significant milestone with a state visit to Việt Nam by ROK President Lee Jae Myung and his wife from April 21 to 24.

The visit comes at a particularly pivotal moment in bilateral relations. Lee is the first foreign head of state to visit Việt Nam less than two weeks after the country completed the consolidation of its Party, National Assembly and Government leadership following the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Việt Nam and the election of the 16th National Assembly.

It also reflects the ROK's wholehearted support for Việt Nam's major political events, for its new leadership and above all, for its socio-economic development in the years ahead.

The visit equally attests to the depth and breadth of high-level engagement between the two countries' top leaders. It follows a series of recent exchanges at the highest level, including the visit of General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam Tô Lâm to the ROK in August 2025, the visit of former State President Lương Cường to the ROK for APEC Leaders' Week in November 2025 and the visit of the ROK's National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik to Việt Nam that same month.

Through these successive engagements, the two sides have steadily built and continuously reinforced the personal trust, commitments and strong working relationships among their senior leaders, thus generating powerful momentum for the overall advancement of bilateral ties.

The two nations' bilateral relationship is developing with exceptional vigour. The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership framework, established in 2022 to mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, continues to bear fruit.

On both sides, the Action Programme for the implementation of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is being carried out effectively and on schedule across ministries, agencies and localities. Broad-based cooperation between the two countries continues to deepen and to yield increasingly substantial results, with each year surpassing the last.

In the economic sphere, the ROK remains Việt Nam's top source of foreign direct investment, its second-largest tourist market and second-largest provider of official development assistance. In addition, the ROK is Việt Nam's third-largest trading partner and third-largest labour destination market.

Defence and security cooperation continues to broaden across the fields of policy dialogue, capacity building and the defence and security industry. Cultural and educational exchanges, along with people-to-people ties – through labour cooperation, tourism, study abroad programmes and family visits – are growing in both volume and intensity.

In 2025, the ROK was Việt Nam's second-largest source of international tourists, with 4.3 million arrivals, accounting for 21 per cent of all foreign visitors to the country.

Ties between provinces and cities on both sides are also playing an increasingly important role as they represent the actual venues where trade, investment and people-to-people activities take place.

The Vietnamese community in the ROK (numbering more than 350,000) and the Korean community in Việt Nam (approximately 200,000) are increasingly serving as vital bridges between the two nations.

Against this backdrop, the important agreements expected to be reached during this visit will undoubtedly elevate bilateral cooperation to a new level, establish new benchmarks and better serve the interests of not only the two countries but also of businesses and peoples of both.

Lee's visit to Việt Nam also presents an opportunity for both sides to further strengthen the strategic and comprehensive nature of the bilateral relationship.

Expectations are running higher than ever for closer cooperation in emerging areas, such as energy, science and technology, semiconductors, digital transformation and artificial intelligence, alongside the traditional pillars of the partnership.

Both sides also recognise the need for closer bilateral coordination to more effectively navigate the complex shifts taking place in the regional and global geopolitical and geo-economic environments that are influenced by rising international tensions and conflicts, increasingly intricate forms of economic, political and security alignments, growing transnational non-traditional security challenges (most notably narcotics trafficking and cybercrime) and above all, mounting strategic autonomy imperatives.

Deepening and elevating the Việt Nam–ROK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is therefore an opportunity for the two countries to contribute to peace, cooperation and prosperity in the region, as middle powers that are assuming more proactive, constructive and responsible roles in international economic and political life.

Such expectations are well-founded. The Việt Nam–ROK relationship is built upon foundations that have been informed by increasingly intertwined interests, steadily strengthened institutional mechanisms for managing the relationship, deepening trust, especially at the highest levels, shared cultural affinities and growing mutual affection between the two peoples.

For all these reasons, I believe, the peoples, business communities, ministries, agencies and localities of both Việt Nam and the ROK warmly welcome this event and wholeheartedly wish the state visit to Việt Nam by President Lee Jae Myung and his wife great success. — VNS

* Nguyễn Vũ Tùng is a professor of international politics at the Diplomatic Academy of Việt Nam and Việt Nam's former Ambassador to the Republic of Korea (2020 – 2023).