Cambodia and Vietnam reaffirmed their determination to strengthen and expand the good neighborly relations, traditional friendship and effective multi-disciplinary cooperation.
In the Joint Statement released on Saturday, Cambodia and Vietnam emphasized the importance of the trade and economic cooperation between the
two countries and the promoting of their traditional relations in other fields.
The joint statement was made during the state visit of Nong Duc Manh, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, who arrived here on Thursday for a three-day official visit at the invitation of Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni.
During the visit, Nong Duc Manh had a royal audience with King Norodom Sihamoni, and met with Chea Sim, president of the Senate, Heng Samrin,
president of the National Assembly and Prime Minister Hun Sen. He and the Cambodian leaders had an extensive discussion, and exchanged views on the bonds of solidarity, friendship and traditional cooperation with Cambodian leaders.
Nong Duc Manh highly appreciated the great achievements of the Royal Government of Cambodia in the implementation of the Rectangular Strategy
Policy which has brought high economic growth and advancement in all socio-economic sectors in Cambodia.
Moreover, some bilateral economic cooperation agreements in the fields of power, industry, mineral resources and water transport were also signed during Nong's visit.
The two sides expressed their satisfaction with the excellent development of relations between the two countries and reaffirmed their
determination to strengthen and expand the good neighborly relations on the basis of the principles enshrined in the Cambodia- Vietnam Joint Communiques in 1999 and 2005 to respect each other's independence, sovereignty and
territorial integrity, the non- interference into each other's internal affairs, the non-use of force or threat to use force, the non-allowance of any political and military force to use one's territory against the other, cooperation on an equal basis and for mutual benefits, the settlement of all problems arising between the two countries through peaceful negotiations.
They agreed to promote high-level meetings and contacts in order to enhance mutual understanding and trust, promote and facilitate favorable conditions for expanding dynamic cooperation between the legislative and
executive branches, people's organizations and local authorities of both countries, especially the authorities along the border of the two countries, encouraging friendly relations between the two peoples, particularly the young generations.
Meanwhile, the two countries also agreed to promote cooperation in combating trans-national crimes, illegal immigration, and reaffirmed their
policy of not allowing any hostile force to use one country's territory to threaten the security of the other.
On the issue of border demarcation, both leaders reiterated their joint determination to complete the demarcation work for land boundary before the end of the year 2012 in order to transform the boundary line into a zone of
peace, friendship, cooperation, and sustainable development. They also agreed to expand cooperation in common patrol to secure stability on the sea border area between the two countries.
At the same time, they agreed to continue to create favorable conditions for fair treatment of their residents on each other's territory
as any other foreign residents in each country.
On the economic cooperation, the two sides reaffirmed the importance of economic cooperation and highly appreciated the positive outcome of the Eleventh Meeting of the Cambodia-Vietnam Joint Commission for Economic, Cultural, Scientific and Technological Cooperation held on Dec. 4, 2009 in Preah Sihanouk Province.
Over the past years, the trade exchange, economic and investment cooperation between the two countries have been more and more strengthened and enhanced, said Dao Ngoc Chuong, deputy general director Asia-Pacific Department of Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Vietnam.
According to the official data, two-way trading between Cambodia and Vietnam was 1.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2008.
In 2010, the two countries targets to increase bilateral trade to two billion U.S. dollars. To reach the target, Vietnam has put forward a number of measures including boosting trade promotion activities and improving quality of Vietnamese products.
Recently some cooperation agreements were signed, such as on the establishment of Cambodia Angkor Air, investment in rubber plantation, electricity connection from the border of Vietnam to Phnom Penh, study project of hydro-power plant development in Cambodia, the construction of Road No. 78 from Banlung to O Yadav, the oil and gas exploration and on many other areas of mutual interests. These projects have further enhanced the economic relations between the two countries.
"The bilateral political ties with regular high level visits by the two sides' leaders recently have contributed greatly to strengthening confidence, creating a good foundation for development and thus bringing the existing bilateral comprehensive relations to a new height," Dao Ngoc Chuong said.