This morning, Vietnam’s President Nguyen Xuan Phuc left Hanoi to begin a two-day visit to Cambodia, the neighboring country that shares both land and sea borders with Vietnam.

Vietnam's President Nguyen Xuan Phuc arrives in Phnom Penh on Dec 21. Photos: VNA

The visit, which is made at the invitation of King Norodom Sihamoni, starts a series of activities of the “Vietnam-Cambodia and Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Year” to commemorate the 55th anniversary of establishing the diplomatic ties in 2022.

This is the first visit paid by a foreign leader to the Kingdom of Cambodia in 2021.

During the tour, Phuc is scheduled to meet King Norodom Sihamoni and Queen-Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk.

Phuc will also meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen, Senate President Say Chhum, and National Assembly President Heng Samrin. He will witness the ground-breaking ceremony for the new administrative building of the National Assembly donated by Vietnam.

The Vietnamese leader will also lay wreaths at the Independence Monument, the Royal Statue of the Late King-Father Norodom Sihanouk in Phnom Penh, and the Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument.

The president will meet the Vietnamese community, Vietnamese students, and Vietnamese businesses operating in Cambodia during his stay there. 

Phuc’s visit to Cambodia shows Vietnam’s foreign policy set for the term 2021-2026 that treasures relationship with neighbors.

President Nguyen Xuan Phuc welcomed in Phnom Penh.

Bilateral relations

Vietnam and Cambodia have a traditional relationship of solidarity, sticking together and helping each other for a long time in history, according to Uch Leang, Department Asian, African and Middle East Studies of International Relations Institute of Cambodia (IRIC).

In recent years, with the good neighborly relations, sustainable cooperation between Cambodia and Vietnam has achieved many successes with comprehensive results in most fields, Uch Leang told The Hanoi Times.

“The leaders of the two countries also highly appreciated the historical significance of the signing of two legal documents recognizing the achievements (84%) of demarcation of the land border between the two countries,” he said.

At the same time, they agreed to continue negotiating to settle the remaining border areas that have not been demarcated. In addition, they will support each other in international and regional issues, especially within the framework of ASEAN cooperation and ASEAN-led mechanisms, the United Nations, WTO, ASEM, and Mekong Sub-region cooperation mechanisms.

In 2020, despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the relationship between the two countries still achieved many important results. In the first ten months of this year, the two-way trade rose 87.5% on year to US$7.87 billion.

In terms of investment, Vietnam has 188 investment projects in Cambodia with a total capital of about $2.88 billion, ranking third among 78 countries and territories that Vietnam has invested in (after Russia and Laos). Vietnam started investments in Cambodia in 2005 mainly in agriculture, banking, and telecommunications.

The two countries also witnessed several developments in other sectors such as tourism, people-to-people exchange and culture, education, and health. With a long-time cozy bilateral relation in history and the goodwill from both countries, bilateral relations will continue to develop and reach a new high in the future, Uch Leang said.

The expert said he believed that after the 13th Party Congress, Vietnam will continue to implement the previous and next policy cycle of always supporting Cambodia in a peaceful, independent, neutral manner.

Cambodia-Vietnam relations have vital meaning to the cause of protecting, building, and developing each country, bringing practical benefits to the people of the two countries and contributing to the maintenance of peace cooperation and development in the region and around the world, he noted.

People welcome the Vietnamese president.