Vietnam, Cambodia aim for $20 bln in trade, boost cooperation in defence, transport: PMs

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on Monday had talks in Hanoi with Cambodian counterpart Samdech Hun Manet, who was on a two-day visit to Vietnam, also his first to an ASEAN country.

PM Chinh congratulated the significant achievements that the Cambodian government had attained, expressing confidence that under the leadership of PM Hun Manet, Cambodia would continue to achieve new milestones in the country's development, including the goal of turning Cambodia into an upper middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income country by 2050.

PM Chinh underscored Vietnam's consistent policy of valuing and prioritizing the "good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive and sustainable cooperation" between Vietnam and Cambodia.

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

The Vietnamese government leader conveyed his greetings to the Cambodian leadership, including Samdech Techo Hun Sen.

PM Hun Manet praised Vietnam on its significant domestic and foreign achievements, contributing to enhancing Vietnam's role and position regionally and globally. He expressed confidence that Vietnam would successfully carry out its industrialization and modernization goals, achieving the set targets by 2030, the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

PM Hun Manet stressed that his official visit aimed 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 Pol Pot genocidal regime and appreciated the longstanding solidarity between the two nations during the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles in the past.

PM Hun Manet conveyed the regards of former Prime Minister Hun Sen to PM Chinh and other senior leaders of Vietnam.

Both leaders have expressed satisfaction with the positive developments in Vietnam-Cambodia relations in recent times. The political relationship has strengthened, with regular exchanges at various levels. Cooperation in security and defence continues to be enhanced. Two-way trade has seen significant progress, with growth rate averaging 20% from 2015 to 2022, surpassing $10 billion in 2022.

Vietnam remains the leading ASEAN investor in Cambodia, with 205 active projects totaling 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.

They have agreed to increase exchanges and high-level meetings, leverage the effectiveness of important cooperation mechanisms between the two governments.

Both sides aim to enhance connections and exchanges between youth and young leaders of both countries. 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 its government leaders to attend the commemoration ceremony on January 7.

Regarding defence and security cooperation, Vietnam and Cambodia concurred 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 sides will continue to effectively implement cooperation plans between the two defence ministries and the public security/internal affairs ministries, closely coordinate in border management, preventing and combating cross-border crimes, and cooperating in addressing non-traditional security challenges.

They welcomed the early holding of the tripartite friendly border exchanges between Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia 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 support each other in building independent, self-reliant, internationally integrated, and efficient economies. They will strengthen economic connections, including infrastructure and policy framework connections, promote bilateral trade, especially border trade, and regional economic development cooperation.

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