President Tô Lâm with Prime Minister Hun Manet of Cambodia. — VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sáng

PHNOM PENH — President Tô Lâm on Saturday held talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Moha Bovor Thipadei Hun Manet during his state visit to the Kingdom of Cambodia.

During the talks, Lâm expressed his delight at his first state visit to Cambodia in his new position and respectfully conveyed the best regards of Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng and other high-ranking leaders of Việt Nam to the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet.

The President congratulated Cambodia on its significant achievements, expressing confidence that Cambodia will achieve its goal of becoming a high middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income country by 2050, with improving living standards for its people, and enhanced regional and global stature.

Prime Minister Hun Manet appreciated President Tô Lâm's visit to Cambodia shortly after assuming office, highlighting the importance that the Vietnamese Party, State, and the President himself place on Cambodia and its people.

On this occasion, Prime Minister Hun Manet congratulated Việt Nam on its significant achievements under the leadership of the Communist Party of Việt Nam led by General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng. He expressed confidence that Việt Nam will continue to achieve even greater successes, further developing and prospering, becoming a bright spot in the region and the world.

Both leaders expressed satisfaction with the strong development of bilateral relations across all areas, bringing tangible benefits to the people of both countries.

The two countries have maintained regular exchanges and meetings at all levels, especially through Party, State, and National Assembly channels, as well as people-to-people exchanges.

Việt Nam is one of Cambodia's largest trading partners, with its trade volume ranking second in the first quarter of 2024, accounting for 22.2 per cent of Cambodia's total export value. They expressed confidence that bilateral trade will soon reach the US$20 billion target.

They discussed deeply the direction and solutions to promote bilateral relations in the coming time, agreeing on major orientations, particularly to maintain and strengthen political trust; emphasise close cooperation to preserve and promote bilateral unity; enhance regular exchanges through high-level visits and contacts across all channels; effectively implement signed commitments, agreements, and cooperation mechanisms; strengthen connection and coordination in communication activities to help people, especially the younger generation, understand the solidarity and close relationship between the two countries. They agreed to arrange for young Cambodian leaders to visit and gain practical experience in Việt Nam soon.

Both sides committed to further enhancing defence-security cooperation, emphasising the principle of not allowing hostile forces to use the territory of either country to undermine the other; closer cooperation in combating high-tech crime and cross-border crime; continuing to build peaceful and stable border lines, cooperation, and sustainable development; supporting each other in training officials and enhancing law enforcement capabilities.

Regarding economic integration, both sides agreed to intensify the implementation of signed agreements such as the Memorandum of Understanding on the development and connection of Việt Nam-Cambodia border commercial infrastructure, the Agreement to promote bilateral trade for the 2025-26 period; vigorously accelerate transportation connections, border gates, actively coordinate with Laos to implement well the "Three Destinations Journey" tourism package through Cambodia-Laos-Việt Nam; effectively exploit the new direct flight route Hà Nội - Phnom Penh - Hà Nội operated by Vietnam Airlines; further promote people-to-people exchanges, especially among youth of both countries, as well as cultural, artistic, media, and sports activities, organising Cultural Days/Weeks in each country.

President Tô Lâm appreciated Việt Nam's encouragement for businesses to increase investment in Cambodia, while Prime Minister Hun Manet committed to continue creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese enterprises and supporting and protecting Vietnamese investors, which is an important goal of the Cambodian government to strengthen connections between the private sectors of the two countries.

Recognising the importance of human resource development cooperation, the two leaders agreed to further enhance cooperation in this crucial area, including Việt Nam continuing to grant scholarships to Cambodian students to study in Việt Nam. Alongside supporting each other in enhancing capacities for officials, both sides will focus on promoting the attraction of students from both countries to study in each other's countries in suitable fields aligned with new development trends such as digital transformation, and scientific and technological applications.

They agreed to coordinate well in implementing agreements and understandings related to the border that both countries have signed; continue negotiations, find fair and reasonable solutions to promote the resolution of areas where border demarcation is incomplete in the near future; enhance cooperation to prevent human trafficking, drug trafficking across borders, ensuring security and safety for people in border provinces; emphasise continued cooperation in addressing emerging issues with a spirit of solidarity, friendship, focusing on building and developing border gate systems, ensuring smooth transportation connections across the border to promote socio-economic development of both countries in general and border provinces in particular, effectively participating in regional linkage initiatives.

On this occasion, President Tô Lâm thanked and highly appreciated Cambodia's recent granting of citizenship to three cases of Vietnamese origin, laying the groundwork for both sides to continue coordinating to address subsequent cases. President Tô Lâm hopes that Cambodia will continue to care and create favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community to integrate peacefully into local life, continuing to be a bridge of friendship between the two countries.

In terms of regional and international cooperation, both sides agreed to support Laos in completing its role as Chair of ASEAN 2024 and the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) Council 2024; promote cooperation in the Cambodia - Laos - Vietnam Development Triangle Area and the Greater Mekong Subregion; cooperate in the management and sustainable use of Mekong River water resources for the benefits of communities in the basin, for the future of next generations, and for the solidarity and close ties between riverside countries, in the spirit of respect, mutual understanding and equal cooperation for mutual benefit. — VNS