Lee will host the leader of Vietnam to strengthen ties and promote global free trade

Lee Jae Myung, South Korean president, will receive Vietnamese leader To Lam on a four-day visit beginning on Sunday. The visit is to discuss the deepening of cooperation in trade and investment, and nuclear energy.

Lam, the general secretary of the Communist Party in Vietnam, is the first leader from outside the country to visit South Korea after Lee's June election. The trip follows the signing of trade agreements between the two countries, which avoided higher U.S. duties on their products.

Kang Yu Jung, South Korea’s presidential spokesperson, said that the leaders would also discuss strategic issues, including regional security, a high-speed rail and other infrastructure projects.

Donald Trump, the U.S. president, said that the U.S. will impose a 15% tariff on South Korean goods imported to the United States and a 20% tariff on Vietnamese goods.

South Korean companies like Samsung Electronics invested billions in Vietnam to expand beyond China. However, Trump's tariff policies have increased uncertainty about future investments.

Sources in South Korea with knowledge of the summit have said that the leaders would also discuss the construction and expansion of businesses by South Korea's largest companies in Vietnam.

Lee, in a written statement to the Vietnam News Agency on Thursday, said that South Korea is committed to expanding its business and economic collaboration with the Southeast Asian nation which is the third largest trading partner of the country.

Lee added: "I am also hopeful that South Korea's and Vietnam's history of economic co-operation will serve as a platform for the restoration of an order based on mutual benefit that is based upon free trade." (Reporting from Jack Kim and Joyce Lee, in Seoul; Francesco Guarascio, in Hanoi. Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Christopher Cushing, and Ed Davies.)

(source: Reuters)