Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung (L) and Cambodian Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Eat Sophea co-chair the event

The event was co-chaired by Vietnamese Deputy Ministerof Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung and Cambodian Secretary of State at theMinistry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Eat Sophea.

The two sides expressed their satisfaction atthe growing friendly neighbourliness and comprehensive cooperation betweenVietnam and Cambodia with the regular exchange of high-level delegations andmeetings.

The cooperation between ministries andlocalities as well as people-to-people exchanges have been further deepenedwhile the bilateral economic and trade partnership has developed strongly withtwo-way trade reaching 4.7 billion USD in 2018.

Vietnam is among the top five foreign investorsin Cambodia with 211 projects worth over 3 billion USD.

The two sides held that there is still largeroom for Vietnam and Cambodia to collaborate in the fields of economy, trade,investment, education-training, and tourism.

They agreed to enhance trade relations,especially cross-border trade, and promote connectivity at border gates anddevelop infrastructure at border areas in order to increase two-way trade toover 5 billion USD and soon complete an overall plan connecting the twoeconomies through 2030.

Vietnam affirmed to continue prioritisingcooperation in education and training high-quality human resources for Cambodiaunder the signed agreements.

The two sides agreed to speed up theimplementation of land border demarcation and marker planting and sign twolegal documents recognising the completion of 84 percent of the work in 2019.

They vowed to closely work together to stabilisethe legal status for Vietnamese-Cambodians.

Vietnam and Cambodia highly evaluated thepolitical consultation mechanism and pledged to promote exchanges betweenVietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairsand International Cooperation for better mutual understanding.

They agreed to coordinate to successfullyorganise the 17th session of the joint committee for economic, cultural,scientific and technological cooperation in 2019.

The two sides agreed to increase the sharing of informationand coordination at regional and international forums, especially in thecooperation mechanisms of the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) and theAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and related forums, contributingto the common goal of peace, stability and sustainable and inclusivedevelopment in the region, as well as promoting solidarity, unity and centralrole of ASEAN.

They pledged to strengthen coordination in 2020when Vietnam will take over the ASEAN Chairmanship and Cambodia will host theAsia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

Later on the same day, Deputy Foreign MinisterNguyen Quoc Dung paid a courtesy visit to Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister andMinister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn.-VNA