Foreign Minister pays courtesy call on Cambodia PM

Son's January 19-20 visit is made at the invitation of his Cambodian counterpart Prak Sokhonn.

Welcoming the Vietnamese diplomat on the first days of the Cambodia – Vietnam Friendship Year 2022, PM Hun Sen expressed his delight at the positive and comprehensive development of the two countries' relations in all fields, from politics, security, defense to education-training, culture, science-technology, people-to-people exchange and cooperation between people living the shared border.

He also emphasised that the two Foreign Ministers must coordinate well to organize celebrations of the friendship year and the 55th anniversary of the two countries' diplomatic ties.

Son, for his part, reaffirmed Vietnam supports Cambodia in its role as Chair of ASEAN in 2022 and stands ready to join Cambodia and other member states to accelerate the implementation of the grouping's agenda, particularly the five-point consensus on Myanmar.

He conveyed greetings and reiterated the invitations of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and other Vietnamese leaders to PM Hun Sen to visit Vietnam in 2022.

Shortly after the meeting with the host’s Government leader, Son held talks with Cambodian Deputy PM and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sakhonn during which both sides said they are happy to see the growing ties between the two countries' ministries, agencies, localities and people. Despite COVID-19 impacts, the bilateral trade surged nearly 80 percent to reach 10 billion USD last year.

In 2021, Vietnamese companies poured more than 88.9 million USD in four new projects in Cambodia. This raised Vietnam's total investment to over 2.84 billion USD, making it one of the five largest foreign investors in the neighboring country.

The two FMs agreed to strengthen cooperation and actively enforce agreements reached by both countries' leaders on land border demarcation and marker planting.

Son also underscored the importance of maintaining peace, security and stability as well as freedom of navigation and aviation security in the region, saying that disputes must be settled via peaceful negotiations on the basis of international law and the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982. It is necessary to push for talks to finalize a Code of Conduct in the East Sea, or South China Sea, (COC), he said.

Later the same day, the Vietnamese FM paid courtesy calls to Cambodia's President of Senate Samdech Say Chhum and President of the National Assembly Samdech Heng Samrin, and presented gifts to pandemic-hit Vietnamese people in Cambodia on the occasion of Tet, Vietnam's traditional lunar New Year holiday.

Source: VNA