Vietnam, Cambodia Prime Ministers hold talks, highlighting the importance of a peaceful border
WVR - On the morning of December 8, on the occasion of co-chairing the inauguration ceremony of the Tan Nam - Meun Chey International Border Gate, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Prime Minister Hun Manet held talks to assess the results of past cooperation and discuss measures to promote bilateral relations.
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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet tour the photo exhibition space showcasing diplomatic achievements between the two nations before proceeding with the talks. (Photo: Thanh Long) |
In a friendly atmosphere, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh congratulated Prime Minister Hun Manet for leading Cambodia to significant achievements in national construction and development over the past two years. He expressed confidence that Cambodia will continue to achieve great success in the future.
The Prime Minister conveyed greetings and best wishes from General Secretary To Lam and other Vietnamese leaders to King Norodom Sihamoni, Chairman of the Cambodian People's Party, President of the Senate Hun Sen, Prime Minister Hun Manet, and other Cambodian leaders.
Thanking Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and key Vietnamese leaders for their kind wishes, Prime Minister Hun Manet praised Vietnam's development achievements under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam, headed by General Secretary To Lam, and wished the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam great success.
On this occasion, Prime Minister Hun Manet extended heartfelt condolences to the Vietnamese people for the significant losses in lives and property caused by recent floods in the central and southern provinces of Vietnam.
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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the talks. (Photo: Thanh Long) |
Reflecting on 2025, both Prime Ministers agreed that over the past year, the two governments effectively implemented the conclusions of the two-party, three-party meeting (February 2025), coordinating proactive, decisive, and effective cooperation plans, achieving substantial results. Political and diplomatic relations have been continuously strengthened. Bilateral cooperation mechanisms continue to be effective, including the 13th Conference on Cooperation and Development of Border Provinces (November 27-29).
Defense and security cooperation has become increasingly substantive, with a trilateral meeting of the Defense Ministers of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Policy dialogues, defense exchanges, and ministerial meetings have contributed to strengthening relations. Economic, trade, and investment cooperation has grown robustly. Bilateral trade reached $10.4 billion in the first 11 months of 2025, up 12.7% compared to the same period in 2024, and is expected to reach $12 billion in 2025.
For Cambodia, Vietnam is currently the third-largest trading partner globally and the largest within ASEAN. Vietnam is the fifth-largest foreign investor in Cambodia, and Cambodia is the second-largest foreign investment destination for Vietnam. Border and territorial cooperation has made notable progress, reflecting the goodwill and determination of both sides to build a peaceful, friendly, stable, cooperative, and developing border. Cooperation in education, training, healthcare, culture, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges is being prioritized and promoted.
The two Prime Ministers highly valued the significance of inaugurating the Tan Nam - Meun Chey international border gate in enhancing connectivity, economy, trade, and people-to-people exchanges. They affirmed their determination to continue improving the border gate system, upgrading cross-border transport infrastructure, and creating new momentum for regional economic development.
Besides the positive aspects of the border gate inauguration, both Prime Ministers agreed on the need for good coordination in managing and maintaining security and order in the border area, preventing cross-border crime, smuggling, and illegal activities. They also emphasized the early signing of the "Agreement on Border Gate Management" and the "Agreement on Border Management Regulations" to facilitate border trade, border gate management, and meet the development goals of both countries in the new phase.
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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet hold talks . (Photo: Thanh Long) |
Building on the achievements and with high determination, both sides are committed to closely coordinating to further strengthen bilateral relations, focusing on enhancing high-level contacts, delegations at all levels and channels, and promoting existing bilateral cooperation mechanisms. They aim to consolidate defense and security cooperation, consistently adhere to the principle of not allowing hostile forces to use one country's territory to oppose the other, maintain security and order in the border area, combat cross-border crime and online fraud, and coordinate in countering false narratives and misinformation from hostile forces that incite, undermine, and divide Vietnam-Cambodia relations.
Both sides agreed to focus on breakthroughs in economic cooperation, enhancing connectivity between the two economies, including cooperation in digital economy development, infrastructure connectivity, and policy framework alignment, especially in trade, investment, transportation, culture, and tourism. They aim to accelerate transport and logistics infrastructure connectivity, develop border gates and trade infrastructure, and strive to achieve bilateral trade of $20 billion soon.
To nurture and preserve the historical value of the relationship, the two Prime Ministers highlighted the significance of coordinating to widely promote the tradition of solidarity and friendship between Vietnam and Cambodia to the peoples of both countries, especially the younger generation, while enhancing people-to-people exchanges with new forms. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed Vietnam's readiness to support Cambodia in improving human resource quality and increasing training scholarships for Cambodia.
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| Prime Minister Hun Manet and the high-level Cambodian delegation at the talks. (Photo: Thanh Long) |
The two Prime Ministers emphasized the importance of maintaining a peaceful, stable, cooperative, and sustainably developing border between the two countries. They affirmed continued coordination to appropriately and promptly address arising issues, including sustainable environmental protection in the border area. They aim to promote negotiations to resolve the remaining 16% of the border that has not been demarcated, and coordinate border management on both land and sea with mutual understanding, respect, and in accordance with international law.
On this occasion, Prime Minister Pham MInh Chinh asked Cambodia to continue handling the legal status issue for people of Vietnamese origin in Cambodia so that they can stabilise their lives and contribute to the host nation’s development and the two countries’ friendship.
Regarding Cambodia – Thailand border tensions, Prime Minister Chinh affirmed that Vietnam is following the situation closely and will continue contributing to peaceful solutions. He called on Thailand and Cambodia to exercise restraint, engage in dialogue, respect each other’s legitimate interests, and adhere to the peace agreement.
Vietnam always treasures and supports efforts to resolve differences by peaceful means, believing that long-term stability is the best solution for both Cambodia and Thailand, for ASEAN solidarity, as well as for peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region and the world, he underscored.
