Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly Vương Đình Huệ waves to greet his Cambodian counterpart Samdech Heng Samrin.  — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Chairman of the Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Vương Đình Huệ held talks with his Cambodian counterpart Samdech Heng Samrin via video teleconference on Thursday morning.

Huệ said he wants to closely co-operate with President of the Cambodian National Assembly Samdech Heng Samrin, Prime Minister Hun Sen and other Cambodian leaders to further promote and intensify the good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive co-operation and long-lasting sustainability between the two countries and legislatures.

The Cambodian leader congratulated Việt Nam on the success of the 13th National Party Congress and the elections of deputies to the 15th NA and people’s councils at all levels for the 2021-26 tenure and spoke highly of the achievements the Party, State, Government and people of Việt Nam have reaped in the cause of national construction and socio-economic development.

He also thanked the Party, State and people of Việt Nam for supporting the Cambodian people in their past struggle for national liberation and their present process of national construction and development.

Huệ told his Cambodian counterpart that Việt Nam has been making all-out efforts to accomplish the dual goal of containing the COVID-19 pandemic and sustaining positive economic growth, adding that the country managed to post a growth rate of 2.91 per cent last year.

Though the COVID-19 situation remained complex, the nation’s economy performed well in the first five months of 2021, Huệ said.

According to the NA Chairman, Việt Nam’s industrial production expanded nearly 10 per cent compared to the same period last year. FDI inflows exceeded US$14 billion. Total retail sales of goods and services rose by 8 per cent. Export revenues reached more than $130 billion, up nearly 31 per cent year-on-year, while imports surged 36.4 per cent. CPI rose 1.29 per cent, the lowest since 2016. Việt Nam is striving to achieve GDP growth of around 6 per cent this year.

Huệ reiterated Việt Nam’s consistent policy of attaching importance and giving a high priority to strengthening its traditional friendship with Cambodia as well as its support for the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP)’s leadership in building a peaceful, independent and neutral Cambodia.

He also expressed his support for Cambodia’s policy on regional and international integration and multilateralisation and diversification of foreign relations, thus contributing to peace, stability and development in the region and the world as a whole.

Both sides showed their delight at the growth of the bilateral ties as top leaders of the two countries have maintained regular meetings and exchanges amid the pandemic, while bilateral cooperation mechanisms continued to be effectively upheld. Two-way trade totalled $3.9 billion in the first four months of 2021, a year-on-year increase of 122 per cent.

The two leaders appreciated the two countries’ ratification of documents marking the completion of 84 per cent of land border demarcation and marker planting workload, and expressed their hope that the remaining work will be completed to build a borderline of peace, friendship, co-operation and development, for peace and prosperity of the two nations’ people.

Huệ thanked the Cambodian National Assembly, Government and relevant agencies for supporting the Vietnamese community living, studying and working in Cambodia during the fight against the pandemic.

Agreeing with his Vietnamese counterpart, Heng Samrin welcomed the two governments’ joint determination to consolidate cooperation and support each other in ensuring security and preventing cross-border crimes such as human trafficking, smuggling of drugs, forestry products, wild animals and explosives, as well as in stepping up socio-economic development in border areas, and in combating COVID-19.

He spoke highly of Việt Nam’s efforts to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, while thanking Việt Nam’s assistance to Cambodia’s fight through the provision of medical supplies and equipment.

The two leaders also discussed measures to boost parliamentary diplomacy.

Huệ affirmed that Việt Nam will back and share experience with Cambodia to successfully organise international conferences in 2021 and support Cambodia’s elections of deputies to the 5th-tenure commune-ward councils in 2022 and to the 7th-tenure National Assembly in 2023.

He suggested both sides actively exchange information, co-ordinate closely and support each other in regional and global issues, including activities at multilateral forums and ASEAN cooperation framework and ASEAN-led mechanisms, and within the frameworks of the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), Mekong sub-regional cooperation mechanisms, and the Cambodia-Laos-Việt Nam tripartite cooperation.

The Vietnamese leader vowed to co-ordinate with his Cambodian counterpart in implementing the cooperation agreement between the two legislatures, signed in May 2019.

Appreciating Cambodia’s establishment of a young parliamentarians’ group, Huệ suggested the two NAs strengthen coordination and cooperation between their committees, the Việt Nam-Cambodia, Cambodia-Việt Nam Friendship Parliamentarians’ Groups, and female parliamentarians’ and young parliamentarians’ groups in legislation and in supervising and making decisions on the nations’ important issues.

The two leaders highlighted the need to encourage and supervise ministries, sectors, localities and businesses to carry out signed agreements so as to deepen the Việt Nam-Cambodia comprehensive cooperation.

They agreed to work together to hold activities and events to celebrate the 55th founding anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties in 2022 (June 24, 1967-2022).

The two leaders took this occasion to invite the other to pay an official visit to their respective country.

Huệ said that he will arrange to attend the 11th Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership (ASEP) Meeting in Cambodia slated for October. He expressed his hope that the meeting will be held in the in-person format when the pandemic is put under control. — VNS