President's upcoming visit to deepen Vietnam-Cambodia ties
(VOV) -President Truong Tan Sang’s forthcoming visit to Cambodia from December 23-24 is seen as a major political event aiming to deepen the time-honoured friendship and all-around cooperation between the two nations.
Since Vietnam and Cambodia established diplomatic ties in 1967, their relations have grown and flourished under the motto of good neighbourliness, time-tested friendship, comprehensive cooperation and long-term sustainability in various realms.
Both sides have maintained senior delegation exchanges, including visits by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and National Assembly (NA) Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung in 2011, and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung early this year.
The Cambodia visits were the ones by the Cambodian King in 2012, Prime Minister Hun Sen in 2013 and NA Chairman Heng Samrin in August this year.
During the meetings, the leaders voiced their determination to further promote the bilateral friendship and comprehensive affiliation.
On economic cooperation, two-way trade hit US$ 3.34 billion in 2013 and US$2.6 billion for the first 10 months of this year. The two sides are set to reach US$5 billion in bilateral trade volume next year.
Vietnamese investors are pouring US$3.36 billion into 134 projects in Cambodia with a focus on industrial crop farming, mining, oil and gas exploration, telecommunications, and banking.
Vietnam and Cambodia have also worked hand in hand in national defence and security by sharing information, resolving issues arising from their shared borderline, maintaining joint patrols at sea, and searching for and repatriating the remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers who laid down their lives during the wartime in Cambodia.
The two countries’ ministries, sectors and localities have inked a series of cooperation agreements and intensified delegation exchanges in a bid to spur bilateral cooperation in the time ahead.
They are making maximum efforts to finalize the border demarcation and border marker planting towards building a border line of peace, friendship, cooperation and development.