
President of the Vietnamese National Assembly Tran Thanh Man (second, left) arrives in Seoul for an official visit to South Korea, September 6, 2026. Photo: VGP
This is Tran's first official visit to South Korea in his capacity as President of the Vietnamese National Assembly, and the first visit to South Korea by a top Vietnamese legislator.
Notably, Tran is the first foreign guest of Speaker of South Korean National Assembly Cho Jeong Sik.
Viet Nam and South Korea established diplomatic relations on December 22, 1992 and elevated ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in December 2022.
Both sides have become trusted partners and close friends as political trust has been constantly consolidated thanks to frequent exchanges of delegations and high-level contacts.
South Korea is currently Viet Nam's largest foreign direct investor with cumulative investment capital of US$101 billion as of June 2026.
The Northeast Asian nation ranks second in development cooperation and tourism, and third in trade, with the two-way trade turnover reaching US$89 billion in 2025.
Defense and security cooperation has grown substantially through specific cooperation projects and agreements while cooperation in science and technology has been identified as a new pillar in bilateral relations.
Bilateral cooperation in labor, culture, tourism, and education has continued to expand while people-to-people exchanges have been maintained actively through diverse channels. Currently, nearly 400,000 Vietnamese are living and working in South Korea and over 200,000 South Koreans are living and working in Viet Nam./.