President of the Republic of Korea (RoK), Mr. Moon Jae-in, and his wife began a three-day State visit to Vietnam on March 22, the Vietnam News Agency reports.

This is his first official visit to Vietnam.

Vietnam and the RoK established diplomatic ties on December 22, 1992, set up a comprehensive strategic partnership in August 2001, and agreed to lift ties to a strategic cooperative partnership in October 2009.

An agreement on cooperation between the two legislatures was signed in 2006; an important legal document for both sides to develop their friendship and cooperation.

The countries have also established important security-defense cooperation mechanisms, including a security dialogue and defense dialogue at the deputy ministerial level.

The Vietnam-RoK Free Trade Agreement, which became effective on December 20, 2015, has opened up a new chapter in bilateral economic ties.

The RoK is one of Vietnam’s most important economic partners, ranking first in terms of investment and second in development cooperation, trade and tourism.

Two-way trade jumped from $500 million in 1992 to $61.5 billion in 2017, of which $14.8 billion were exports by Vietnam, up 30 per cent from the previous year, while $46.7 billion were imports from the RoK, up 45.3 per cent.

The two countries are working towards raising total trade to $100 billion by 2020.

The RoK ranks first among 125 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, with total registered capital standing at $57.7 billion as of late December 2017, and is second in terms of tourist numbers.

Vietnam welcomed more than 2 million South Korean visitors last year, a 56.4 per cent surge against 2016. In January, 316,300 South Korean tourists visited Vietnam, up 84 per cent year-on-year.

There are more than 112,200 Vietnamese people living in South Korea, while about 150,000 South Koreans are living in Vietnam.