Cambodian PM paying first visit to Vietnam

At talks with his Cambodian counterpart Samdech Hun Manet, who is paying his first visit to Vietnam from December 11-12, which is also his first visit to an ASEAN country since becoming the Prime Minister of Cambodia in August, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh congratulated the significant achievements the Cambodian Government had attained and expressed confidence that under the leadership of Prime Minister Hun Manet it would continue to achieve new milestones in its development, including the goal of becoming an upper middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income country by 2050, according to a report from the Vietnam News Agency.

Prime Minister Chinh underscored Vietnam’s consistent policy of valuing and prioritizing the “good neighborliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive and sustainable cooperation” between the two neighbors.

He also highlighted the historical solidarity and mutual support between the two countries during their struggle for independence and in current nation-building and development efforts.

Prime Minister Hun Manet praised Vietnam for its significant domestic and foreign achievements, contributing to enhancing the country’s role and position regionally and globally. He expressed confidence that it would successfully reach its industrialization and modernization goals, achieving targets by 2030, which will be the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Prime Minister Hun Manet stressed that his official visit aims to inherit the good traditions and promote the traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries to new heights.

He sincerely thanked the Vietnamese army and people for assisting Cambodia in overthrowing the genocidal Pol Pot regime and appreciated the longstanding solidarity between the two nations during their anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles.

Both leaders expressed satisfaction with the positive developments in relations between the two countries in recent times. The political relationship has strengthened as a result, with regular exchanges at various levels. Cooperation in security and defense continues to be enhanced, while two-way trade has seen significant progress, surpassing $10 billion in 2022 and with growth averaging 20 per cent from 2015 to 2022.

Vietnam remains the leading ASEAN investor in Cambodia, with 205 active projects and registered capital of $2.95 billion. In the first nine months of 2023, more than 640,000 Vietnamese tourists visited Cambodia and around 250,000 Cambodian tourists visited Vietnam.

The two Prime Ministers agreed to increase exchanges and high-level meetings and leverage the effectiveness of important cooperative mechanisms between the two governments.

Both sides pledged to enhance connections and exchanges between their youth and young leaders. They will coordinate to organize practical activities to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the victory over the Pol Pot regime (January 7, 1979 - 2024), with Cambodia sending government leaders to attend a commemorative ceremony on January 7.

Regarding defense and security cooperation, the two sides agreed to continue strengthening this crucial pillar to contribute to maintaining a peaceful and stable environment in each country.

They reaffirmed the principle of not allowing any hostile forces to use the territory of one country against the other. Both will continue to effectively implement cooperative plans between the two defense ministries and the public security / internal affairs ministries, closely coordinate in border management, preventing and combating cross-border crime, and cooperating in addressing non-traditional security challenges.

They welcomed the early holding of the tripartite friendly border exchange between Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos at the ministerial level.

The Cambodian side affirmed the importance of continuing to prioritize and cooperate in the search, retrieval, and repatriation of the remains of Vietnamese voluntary soldiers and experts who lost their lives in Cambodia.

In terms of economic, trade, and investment cooperation, the two Prime Ministers agreed to help each other in building independent, self-reliant, internationally-integrated, and efficient economies. They will strengthen economic links, including infrastructure and policy framework links, promote bilateral trade, especially border trade, and regional economic development cooperation.

The goal is to achieve bilateral trade turnover of $20 billion in the near future. Both sides agreed to encourage and facilitate the business activities of enterprises in the two countries.

With regard to border cooperation, the two leaders applauded the efforts of relevant agencies on both sides to continue maintaining, consolidating, and developing peaceful and stable border areas.

They agreed to continue coordinating to expedite the demarcation of the remaining 16 per cent of border line between the two countries. The two sides will continually enhance the effectiveness of cooperation between functional forces and localities along the common border.

In other areas of cooperation, the two Prime Ministers agreed to strengthen the sharing of experience, training, and capacity building for officials of both countries.

Labor, transportation connectivity, including the connection of highways and the frequency of direct flights between major cities of both countries, and tourism links - including cooperation with Laos to boost tourism packages under the “One Journey, Three Destinations” initiative - are other areas of cooperation.

On this occasion, Prime Minister Chinh thanked the Cambodian Government for continuing to pay attention to and create favorable conditions for ethnic Vietnamese people to live and do business stably and legally in Cambodia, integrate well into the local community, and serve as a bridge of friendship between the two countries.

In discussions on regional and international issues, the two leaders stressed the importance of maintaining peace, security, and stability in the region, including solidarity, and a common stance and the central role of ASEAN in addressing regional security issues, including the East Sea issue.

They affirmed their commitment to close coordination and mutual support of each other’s positions at regional and international forums, join in efforts to build the ASEAN Community, and enhance the cooperation between the three countries of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, including the effective implementation of agreements reached at the High-Level Meeting between the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Cambodian People’s Party, and the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party.

They also supported Laos in fulfilling its role as the ASEAN 2024 and AIPA 2024 Chair.

The leaders committed to promoting the development of the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle and the expanded Mekong Sub-region to bridge the development gap.

The two countries also pledged to cooperate in the sustainable management and use of water resources in the Mekong River.

Following their talks, the two Prime Ministers witnessed the signing of three cooperative documents: an MoU on cooperation in the fields of science, technology, and innovation between the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Cambodian Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology and Innovation; an MoU on cooperation between the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce; and an MoU on cooperation between the Diplomatic Academy and Cambodia’s National Institute of Diplomacy and International Relations.