The Changing World Political Economy and South Korea-Vietnam Relations

The Southeast Asia Research Center in SNUAC invited Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thang, the President of the Vietnam Academy of Social Science(VASS), for the SNUAC special lecture held on March 17th. On this day, Dr. Thang gave a lecture on the topic, “The changing world political economy and South Korea-Vietnam relations.”

Dr. Thang initiated the lecture by expressing his expectations for seeking to improve relations of South Korea and Vietnam through discussing common interests between the two countries.

The lecture was composed of two parts; the first part was on the improving cooperation between South Korea and Vietnam, and the other was on the influence of China’s economic expansion on Vietnam. in these days, the world does not follow a specific ideology, but rather have pursue its own interests. Moreover, countries are tied up in a chain and mutually influence one another, heading toward an unexpectable future.

Dr. Thang explained that at present, South Korea and Vietnam need to cooperate in terms of political, security, economic, environmental and academic issues by simultaneously considering what it means to be ‘Asian’ and ‘Global’ values.

What Dr. Thang indicated as the most and recent controversial issue in Asia was China’s economic expansion. China is currently invest the regions including Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, and going through rapid economic growth in Guangxi in priorities. The lecturer also pointed out that recent territorial disputes between Vietnam and China were intentionally provoked by China to test the response of the World society. He added that China is striving to expand with both economic and military objectives.

The lecturer wrapped up the session by emphasizing that Korea and Vietnam should seize the opportunity of China growing into a superpower nation, and ensure their national security.

After the lecture, discussions followed on the problems of polarization in Vietnam by going through issues on the real-estate, conglomerates, and corruption in Vietnam. In addition, Vietnam’s stance and development strategies on the environmental problems in the ‘Mekong River’ region were discussed in depth. This lecture provided an opportunity to share professional knowledge about South Korea and Vietnam.