President Tran Dai Quang and the Republic of Korea’s President Moon Jae-in witnessed the signing ceremony of cooperative documents on economic, trade, investment, science, technology, and labor (Photo: Viet Cuong/ VOV)

During the visit, president Moon held talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Dai Quang, met Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan. In the joint declaration released on Saturday, both agreed on the need to upgrade the current "strategic cooperative partnership" by further deepening and expanding exchanges and cooperation in diverse areas, with incentives given to investment cooperation in supportive industries, electronic and energy, high tech, modern agriculture, infrastructure, smart metropolitans, start-up and future growth. The two sides agreed to work together to increase bilateral trade to more than 100 billion U.S. dollars by 2020 while accelerating negotiation for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement this year. The leaders agreed to increase exchanges between high-level officials from their countries and dialogue mechanisms in diplomacy, defense and security, opening of Vietnamese studies and Korean language faculties in their respective countries. They emphasized on the importance of peace, maritime safety and freedom while settling disputes by international law with efficient and comprehensive implementation of the Declaration on Conducts for Parties in the East Sea towards early signing of a Code of Conducts for Parties in the East Sea. They also agreed that improved inter-Korean relations and a peaceful resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue are imperative for establishing a lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula as well as the peace of the international community.  Vietnam welcomes and support South Korea’s efforts to peacefully resolve the nuclear issue and promote inter-Korean talks.