Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lê Thị Thu Hằng — VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam rejects reports of its relations with Cambodia being influenced by the latter's ties with other countries, and reiterates the wish for a long-term, sustainable, and comprehensive friendship with Cambodia.

Spokesperson for Việt Nam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lê Thị Thu Hằng during a press briefing on Thursday in Hà Nội stressed that Việt Nam “always cherishes and gives high priority to the traditional, neighbourly friendship with Cambodia,” and desires to grow the bilateral ties to be more substantial, comprehensive and practical for the benefits of the two nations’ peoples.

Hằng affirmed that the two countries' relations have grown positively in recent times.

Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides have conducted high-level delegation visits, including the official trip by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam and State President Nguyễn Phú Trọng in February 2019 and the two state visits by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in December 2018 and October 2019.

Cambodia and Việt Nam have jointly held a meeting to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the victory of Việt Nam’s war to defend the southwestern border in the 70s and together with Cambodian military and people celebrated the triumph over the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime on January 1, 2019, Hằng said.

Celebrations have also been held to mark the 43rd anniversary of the day when Hun Sen set on a journey to Việt Nam in hope of support for the efforts to liberate Cambodia from the grip of the Khmer Rouge back in June 1977 to the eventual establishment of the People's Republic of Kampuchea (currently known as the Kingdom of Cambodia).

The two countries’ leaders have also had talks on the COVID-19 pandemic response and maintenance of cross-border trade and commerce activities, the Vietnamese spokesperson said.

Hằng underlined that the important achievements in bilateral cooperation have been manifested in many areas, with economic, trade and investment ties continuing to prosper.

In 2018-19, Việt Nam and Cambodia signed 21 cooperation documents, including the Supplementary Treaty to the 1985 Treaty on the Delimitation of the National Boundary and the 2005 Supplementary Treaty between Việt Nam and Cambodia (the 2019 Supplementary Treaty) and the Protocol on the Demarcation and Marker Planting of the Land Boundary between Việt Nam and Cambodia (The Land Boundary Demarcation Protocol for short) after 36 years of negotiation, Hằng noted.

Cambodian National Assembly lawmakers adopted a draft law on protocols on boundary demarcation and border post planting between Cambodia and Việt Nam at a plenary session earlier in November, according to the Khmer Times.

So far, the two countries have demarcated around 1,045km of the border line, built 2,047 landmarks at 1,553 locations in the field, accounting for 84 per cent of the workload.

A ceremony was also held just last week in Hà Nội to hand over Việt Nam-Cambodia border topographic maps with a scale of 1:25,000 to ministries, sectors, and central agencies and to provide training in the use of the maps which fully reflect the mutually-agreed-upon land border demarcation and marker planting results, she said.

The Vietnamese spokesperson noted that in the face of the complicated developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vietnamese Government, ministries, sectors and local administrations have provided medical supplies to support Cambodia's COVID-19 response, and continued to maintain and promote bilateral cooperation in all fields, while closely coordinating in multilateral mechanisms and international forums in a bid to resolve regional issues. — VNS