Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) officially established diplomatic relations on December 22, 1992 marked by the opening of the RoK’s Embassy in Hanoi. The following year, Vietnam opened its Embassy in Seoul and RoK opened its General Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City. From that moment on, the two countries’ relationship has been constantly upgraded to new levels. In 2001, the establishment of a "Comprehensive Partnership in the 21st Century" was announced during Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong’s visit to RoK. In 2009, it was upgraded to strategic partnership. Then, the relationship was elevated to a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" in December 2022 thanks to 30 years of the bilateral cooperation in economic, trade, investment, culture, education, and people-to-people exchanges. RoK's foreign policy always affirms the importance of Vietnam in implementing the Global Pivotal State (GPS), the Indo-Pacific Strategy and the ASEAN-Korea Solidarity Initiative (KASI).

Regardless of all the ups and downs in regional and international situations, the two countries have gained miracle achievements in socio-economic developments and maintained many strategic dialogue mechanisms on politics, security and defense, signed memorandums of understanding on confidentiality, information security, military information security, and defense cooperation. In fact, many official governmental and ministerial meetings have been made by high-ranking officials from both sides such as President Truong Tan Sang’s visit to RoK in 2011, President Moon Jae-in’s visit to Vietnam in 2018, Defense Minister Song Young-moo’s visit to Vietnam, National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue’s visit to the RoK in 2021, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the RoK Park Jin’s visit to Vietnam in 2022, etc. Till now, the exchange of delegations, high-level contacts at all levels, and channels, are constantly being enhanced and expanded. Those are clear evidences for the fact that both side are nurturing a high-level trust politics relationship over the past 30 years. The RoK readily and willingly cooperates with Vietnam in the fields that the RoK has strengths and Vietnam has needs, such as digital transformation, cybersecurity, biotechnology, education and training, contributing to promoting the increasingly strong and comprehensive development of bilateral relations. 

In the field of economy, the RoK is one of the most important partners of Vietnam as it ranks top in terms of direct investment, official development assistance (ODA), labor, tourism and trade cooperation, making important and effective contributions to the country’s economic development. Korean businesses such as Samsung Electronics, Lotte, Hyosung, LG, Hyundai Motor, CJ, Daewoo E&C, GS E&C, Doosan, KDB Bank, etc have been present in all economic sectors of Vietnam's economy, from apparel to electronics, infrastructure to energy, automobiles to aerospace, real estate to finance and banking, etc., thereby contributing to the economic restructuring, and promoting Vietnam’s key economic sectors. In addition, the huge number of Korean companies in Vietnam have created jobs for over 700,000 workers. Most recently, at the 2nd Vietnam - Korea Deputy Prime Ministerial Dialogue on Economic cooperation held in Hanoi (March 3rd, 2023), Korea and Vietnam discussed and reached consensus on many important cooperation contents in 5 fields of trade, energy and infrastructure, development cooperation, information – technology and communication, start-up and investment; health and labor.

Specifically, in terms of trade cooperation with Vietnam, the RoK ranks third with bilateral trade turnover reaching 66.65 billion USD (in 2019), 65 billion USD (in 2020) and 78 billion USD (in 2021), nearly 87 billion USD (in 2022). This number is expected to approach the target of 100 billion USD this year and 150 billion USD by 2030. So far, about 40 localities of the two countries have established cooperative relations. Many RoK multinational corporations and big enterprises with modern technologies have invested in Vietnam such as the Viet Nam-RoK Technology Incubator Project (KVIP) in Can Tho city with a total investment of 21 million USD. By the end of 2022, Korea continues investing in Vietnam with a total investment of over 4 billion USD for more than 370 projects.

Vietnam and the Republic of Korea continue strengthening cooperation in tourism, culture, arts and sports. Vietnam is the RoK’s second largest market of tourism with 1,000 direct flights conducted between two countries. With a community of over 200,000 Vietnamese living in the RoK, the Vietnam Cultural Festival is held annually in Seoul so that Korean people can understand more about Vietnam. In Vietnam, the Korean community also has more than 180,000 people, most of whom are businessmen living in busy urban areas in Hanoi, mostly in Trung Hoa – Nhan Chinh, My Dinh – Song Da in Nam Tu Liem district, which are named “Korean Street”, “Korea Village”.  Besides, it is also well-known that Vietnamese men’s football obtained its most glorious achievements with hallmarks of the head Korean coach Park Hang-seo. 

The relationship between Vietnam and the RoK is expected to be continuously expanded and strengthened on the basis of the two countries’ similarities in geography, history and culture as well as the mutual understanding between their leaders and people. Vietnam highly values the comprehensive strategic partnership with the RoK and always create favorable investment environment to attract Korean businesses to expand their investment in the coming time, especially in the fields of digital technology, electronics, renewable energy, infrastructure development, etc.

Vietnamese Government is expected to make reforms in administrative procedures, policies and laws for the RoK’s not only investors but also experts and workers coming to invest and work in Vietnam, such as the visa rules, temporary residence card, and work permits for foreigners. It can be seen clearly that 30 years ago, Vietnam and the RoK established formal diplomatic relations, opening up a new chapter in both countries’ history that have brought fruitful cooperation and development not only for present but for many years to come.