President Moon Meets OECD Secretary-General and Vietnamese Minister...Expresses Gratitude for 'Urea Solution Cooperation' (Comprehensive)

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] On the 9th, President Moon Jae-in held successive meetings with Mathias Cormann, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and Taing Sun, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, to discuss domestic and international economic outlooks. In particular, he expressed gratitude to the Vietnamese side for their cooperation during the urea solution shortage crisis.

This meeting was arranged on the occasion of Secretary-General Cormann and Minister Sun's visit to Korea to attend the 'OECD Southeast Asia Program Ministerial Meeting' hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

President Moon said to Secretary-General Cormann, "I wish for the successful hosting of the 2nd OECD Southeast Asia Program Ministerial Meeting, which will begin this afternoon," and added, "I am pleased that Korea has served as a co-chair country for the past four years, contributing to strengthening cooperation between the OECD and Southeast Asia."

Secretary-General Cormann said, "Thank you for sharing Korea's COVID-19 response experience with many countries," and added, "Let us work together through cooperation with OECD member and non-member countries to overcome global challenges." President Moon and Secretary-General Cormann exchanged views on the spread of Omicron, supply chain disruptions, accelerated monetary tightening, and instability in the Ukraine situation, and agreed on the importance of securing a rules-based trading system and emphasizing free trade.

President Moon also evaluated, "With the rapid digitalization of socioeconomics, international cooperation has become important to establish safe and inclusive global norms in various areas such as international taxation, data movement and privacy protection, artificial intelligence, and ethics."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

President Moon then met with Minister Sun and said, "Korea regards Vietnam as a special partner and values it highly," adding, "The bilateral relationship has maintained the best possible status except for the unavoidable contraction of human exchanges due to COVID-19."

President Moon expressed, "I am pleased that trade volume exceeded 80 billion USD last year despite the COVID-19 situation, and I expect that the two countries will surely achieve the goal of reaching 100 billion USD by 2023," and said, "Especially this year marks the 30th anniversary of Korea-Vietnam diplomatic relations, so I hope it will be an opportunity for the bilateral relationship to take a step forward."

Minister Sun expressed gratitude, saying, "Thank you for Korea's cooperation with not only Vietnam but also ASEAN countries based on the New Southern Policy," and showed appreciation for the support of COVID-19 vaccines and medical supplies last year.

President Moon also expressed gratitude for Vietnam's cooperation when Korea faced difficulties with urea solution and requested Vietnam's interest and support for the 2030 Busan Expo bid. He said he would also support Vietnam's goal of becoming an advanced country by 2045.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.