Phnom Penh (VNA) – Vietnam and Cambodia, celebrating the 50th anniversary of their bilateral diplomatic ties this year, are working to promote relations of “good neighborliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation and long-term sustainability”.
“Vietnam-Cambodia relations are the flesh-and-blood relations between two neighboring countries,” Vietnamese ambassador to Cambodia Nguyên Huy Tang told the Vietnamese News Agency (VNA), adding that “no enemy wants the friendship and solidarity between the two peoples”.
“Looking back at the history of the 1960s, when the American imperialists extended the war to all of Indochina, the peoples of Vietnam and Cambodia, with their traditions of solidarity, fought side by side against the American imperialists,” he recalled.
“On June 24, 1967, President Ho Chi Minh and Cambodian head of state Samdech Norodom Sihanouk decided to lay the foundation for bilateral diplomatic relations,” he recalled, adding that since then the fates of the two peoples have been more closely linked and the strength of the both countries strengthened to fight and defeat their common enemies.
Ambassador Nguyên Huy Tang highlighted the achievements recorded in bilateral cooperation over the 55 years of relations, noting that bilateral political relations have undergone continuous development and really play the role of the core to the whole relationship between the two countries.
“Defence, security and foreign affairs cooperation between the two countries has continued to deepen and is one of the very important pillars of Vietnam-Cambodian relations,” he said.
According to the diplomat, significant progress has been made on the economic and trade fronts. Bilateral trade reached $130-150 million in 1997-1999 and has grown at an annual average of 30-40% since 2005. It was $5.32 billion in 2020 and $9.54 billion in 2021.
In the first five months of this year, trade was $5.44 billion, up 19% from the same period last year, and is expected to reach $10 billion in 2022.
Vietnam is one of the top ASEAN investors and one of the top five foreign investors in Cambodia with 188 valid projects with a total registered capital of US$2.88 billion.
The two countries also value cooperation in the areas of culture, education and personnel training. Vietnam offers hundreds of scholarships in Cambodia each year awarding 35 scholarships in Vietnam. There are currently 2,427 Cambodian students in Vietnam and 100 Vietnamese students in Cambodia.
“With the close guidance of the leaders of the two countries and the efforts of the relevant bodies of the two countries, the two sides have completed 84 percent of the scale of demarcation and demarcation work on the common land border,” the ambassador said.
On June 20, Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen and his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh co-chaired a ceremony commemorating the 45th anniversary of the “road to overthrow the genocidal regime.
The Cambodian Prime Minister thanked the Vietnamese leadership and people for their support and contribution to liberating Cambodia from the genocidal regime, saying that “the help of the Vietnamese people shows the pure and good friendship between the two countries and the two peoples. I believe this relationship will thrive and last forever.” – VNA