Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (R) and President of the Cambodian NA Samdech Heng Samrin meet in Hanoi on September 13. (Photo: VNA)

They noted that leaders of Vietnam and Cambodia have maintained frequent meetings and discussions while bilateral cooperation mechanisms have continued to prove effective, helping sustain cooperation momentum in various fields.

Notably, despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts over the last two years, economic partnership has generated encouraging outcomes. Bilateral trade approximated 10 billion USD in 2021 and surpassed 7 billion USD in the first seven months of 2022, up 17.8% year on year. Vietnam currently has 188 valid investment projects worth 2.8 billion USD in Cambodia, ranking first among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and fifth among all foreign direct investors in there.

Both host and guest highly valued the coordination to successfully organise many meaningful activities in the Vietnam - Cambodia Friendship Year 2022, especially the June 20 ceremony chaired by the two PMs marking 45 years since the start of Samdech Techo Hun Sen’s journey to topple the Pol Pot genocidal regime and the celebration of the 55th anniversary of the countries’ diplomatic ties on June 24.

They agreed to maintain frequent high-level meetings via all channels to unceasingly promote the trustworthy political relationship. Meanwhile, legislative and executive bodies of Vietnam and Cambodia will continue bringing into play their role in fostering bilateral relations, particularly in creating favourable legal corridors for all-faceted cooperation, and monitoring and promoting ministries, sectors, localities, and businesses’ implementation of signed agreements.

The two sides also agreed to work together to effectively carry out the deals and plans on defence - security cooperation, prevent cross-border crimes, and conduct border demarcation and marker planting on the remaining 16% of their borderline so as to build a land border of peace, friendship, cooperation, and development.

They underscored the importance of enhancing economic connectivity, especially in transport, telecommunications, and finance - banking, to create a new impulse for partnerships in other spheres like trade, investment, energy, tourism, education - training, and locality-to-locality ties.

At the meeting, Prime Minister Chinh thanked and called on the Cambodian parliament and Government to continue creating conditions for Vietnamese-origin people to settle down, integrate into the local society, and act as a bridge linking the two countries. He also called for optimal conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to operate stably in Cambodia in the long term.

He took this occasion to appreciate Cambodian authorities’ effective coordination with Vietnam to rescue many Vietnamese citizens lured to forced labour in some business establishments of foreigners in Cambodia. He asked the two sides to keep close cooperation to rescue and assist victims, and thoroughly deal with this issue.

Regarding multilateral cooperation, the two leaders concurred that their countries will keep coordination and mutual support at international and regional forums.

Prime Minister Chinh affirmed that Vietnam supports and believes Cambodia will successfully perform the Chairmanship of ASEAN and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) in 2022.

He also asked the two countries to join other ASEAN members to exert efforts to maintain the bloc’s solidarity, unanimity, and centrality in strategic issues of the region, including the East Sea issue.