President Nguyen Xuan Phuc meets with Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An on December 21 in Phnom Penh as part of his State visit to Cambodia.
During the meeting with the Cambodian PM, President Phuc congratulated Cambodia over the great accomplishments in socio-economic development and COVID-19 prevention and control that the Cambodian Government and people have gained, which he said helped contributed importantly to Cambodia’s strong growth and enhanced position in the region and the world.
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| The two leaders witness the signing of agreements__Photo: VNA |
He wished Cambodia success in the organization of the communal elections in 2022 and general 2023, which will create a momentum for the country to realize its goal of becoming an upper middle income level country in 2030 and a high income level country in 2050.
PM Hun Sen hailed the significance of the Vietnamese President’s state-level visit, which he said contributes to further consolidating the “good neighborliness, traditional friendship, and comprehensive, sustainable long-term cooperation” between the two countries.
The two leaders informed each other on the socio-economic situation in their respective countries, and expressed satisfaction at the increasing effective and comprehensive development of the Vietnam-Cambodia cooperative relations throughout the past 55 years.
Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides have made efforts to maintain mutual visits and high-level contact and discussion, optimize bilateral cooperative mechanism. As a result, bilateral collaboration in national defense-security, trade-investment and between localities continued to make progress.
Trade and investment are the bright spots, with two way trade topping USD 8.63 billion in the first 11 months of 2021, up 84 percent year on year. Vietnam has had four more investment projects in Cambodia with total registered capital valued at nearly USD 90 million, almost four times the figure for the same period last year, raising the total valid Vietnamese investment projects in the neighboring country to 188 valued at USD 2.85 billion, the fourth largest amount of an ASEAN country in Cambodia.
The two leaders hailed the outcomes reached at the 19th session of the Joint Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Commission for Economic, Cultural, Scientific and Technological Cooperation held on December 19, 2021, which made a deep review of bilateral ties across the fields and outlined specific proposals to promote the ties.
They reached consensus on the directions for enhancing bilateral cooperation in the time ahead, focusing on the effective implementation of reached agreements between the two Parties and States. The two sides will maintain visits and contacts at all levels and bilateral cooperative mechanisms, and coordinate to organize activities in the Vietnam-Cambodia, Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Year in 2022 to mark the 55th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic relations.
The two leaders affirmed to further deepen cooperation in security-defense, including joint work to ensure border security and accelerate the search and repatriation of remains of Vietnamese voluntary soldiers and experts who died during the war in Cambodia.
They agreed to promote connectivity, both hard and soft, between the two economies, especially in transport, telecoms, trade, investment, finance-banking, agriculture, tourism, energy and local cooperation. They pledged support for efforts to early complete a master plan on Vietnam-Cambodia economic connectivity to 2030, and to effectively carry out signed agreements, while coordinating to implement the pandemic-control customs clearance model for vehicles and goods at land and water border gates and continuing to study the building of border markets in border provinces.
The two leaders highly valued the completion of an agreement on border trade, and pledged to continue paying attention to facilitating business and investment activities of businesses of the two countries on the basis of mutual benefit.
They also agreed to promote partnership in education-training, justice, agro-fishery-forestry, natural resources-environment and tourism. The two sides will speed up negotiations on mutual recognition of each other’s vaccine passports/ COVID-19 vaccination certificates.
The two sides reached consensus on the full, serious implementation of treaties and agreements related to the border, including the two legal documents recognizing the result of the Vietnam-Cambodia land border demarcation and marker planting with about 84 percent of the total workload completed. The two sides will continue to conduct negotiations on the remaining 16 percent of workload, and coordinate to seek solutions to remaining issues in the spirit of solidarity and friendship towards building a peaceful, stable and cooperative borderline between the two countries.
PM Hun Sen expressed deep gratitude to Vietnam for its great support and help for Cambodia’s cause of national liberation and escape from genocide, and pledged to continue working to develop bilateral ties.
President Phuc thanked Cambodia for the precious support that Cambodian leaders and people gave Vietnam in its struggle for national independence and reunification and the present national construction. He asked Cambodia to continue creating favorable conditions for Cambodians of Vietnamese origin, especially regarding their legal status.
The two leaders appreciated the effective coordination between the two countries in regional and international forums, especially the ASEAN framework. President Phuc affirmed Vietnam’s strong support for Cambodia as Chair of ASEAN in 2022, and expressed a hope that the two countries will continue to work together to uphold ASEAN’s principled stance on the East Sea.
The two sides underlined the importance of maintaining security, safety and freedom of maritime and aviation, building trust, using no force and not threatening to use force, respecting international law and addressing disputes by peaceful means on the basis of international law, including the 1992 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. They supported the full, serious implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea ASEAN and efforts to reach an effective and substantive Code of Conduct in the East Sea in accordance with international law.
President Phuc invited PM Hun Sen to visit Vietnam and the latter accepted the invitation with pleasure.
After the meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing and handing over of seven cooperative documents between the two Governments, ministries and sectors, along with many contracts and business agreements.
The same day, President Phuc hosted a reception for Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An.
Phuc thanked the Cambodian Government, mass organizations and people for providing support for the Vietnamese counterparts in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic, including USD 50,000 donated by the Cambodia - Vietnam Friendship Association.
Men Sam An stressed that Cambodia always treasures and thanks Vietnam for assisting Cambodia in the cause of national liberation and overthrowing genocidal regime as well as in national development at present.
She vowed to do her best to keep developing the good neighborliness, traditional friendship, and comprehensive, sustainable long-term cooperation between the two countries.
The Deputy PM also agreed to step up people-to-people exchange activities and raise public awareness of the significance of bilateral traditional friendship, especially among young generations.- (VNA/VLLF)
