The President's visit has great significance for the relationship between Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

Ahead of the visit, Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet gave an interview about the meaning, purpose and key contents of President To Lam's visit this time.

Reporter: President To Lam will pay a State visit to Laos and Cambodia from July 11-13. Could you please tell us about the significance of this special visit of the President and how does the Deputy Minister assess the Vietnam-Laos and Vietnam-Cambodia relations?

Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet: At the invitation of General Secretary and President of Laos Thoonglun Sisulith and King of Cambodia Norodom Sihamoni, President To Lam will pay a state visit to Laos and Cambodia from July 11-13, 2024.

President To Lam's first overseas trip after taking office is of great significance, demonstrating a very important message from the Party and State of Vietnam as well as the President, that is, the Party and State of Vietnam always attach importance to and give the highest priority to the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos and the good neighborly relationship, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation, and long-term sustainability between Vietnam and Cambodia.

It is also a message affirming the solidarity and close bond between the three countries. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are geographically close, have historical and cultural ties, and the three leading parties in the three countries have a common origin, the Indochinese Communist Party. The people of the three countries have united, bonded, and sacrificed their blood for the cause of national liberation, national unification and national development as it is today.

With the determination to promote the implementation of high-level agreements, especially the results of the high-level meetings between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and the Cambodian People's Party (CPP), the visit will mark a new stage of development in the Vietnam-Laos and Vietnam-Cambodia relations on the basis of equality, mutual benefit, effective cooperation, respect for each other's interests, contributing to strengthening strategic trust as well as deepening relations with the two countries, enhancing solidarity between Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia and ASEAN.

PV: Could you please evaluate Vietnam's relations with the two countries and the highlights of cooperation with each country?

Deputy Foreign Minister Do Hung Viet: The Vietnam-Laos and Vietnam-Cambodia relations are developing very well, comprehensively, with increasing trust and closeness. Party channel cooperation plays a core role, has been guiding and leading the strong development of the relationship.

Defense and security cooperation between Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia is becoming a solid pillar of cooperation, contributing significantly to maintaining stability, security, politics and society in each country, especially in border areas. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are all steadfast in the principle of not allowing hostile forces to use the territory of one country to conduct acts against the other. The three countries are promoting important cooperation mechanisms such as: Annual Conference between the three Ministers of Public Security/Interior Affairs, Annual Meeting between the three Ministers of Defense and Joint Search and Rescue Exercises between the three countries' Armies.

Economic, investment and trade cooperation continues to develop more positively and effectively, economic cooperation in border areas develops dynamically, not only increasing the connection between the three countries but also contributing significantly to improving the lives of people in the border areas between Vietnam-Laos, Vietnam-Cambodia as well as between the three countries. Meetings of the Vietnam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee are held regularly, promptly exchanging and finding solutions to enhance the effectiveness of cooperation in key areas. Vietnam continues to be one of the largest investors and trade partners of Laos and currently has 255 valid investment projects in Laos with a total capital of 5.5 billion USD.

Vietnam is currently Cambodia's third largest trading partner and Cambodia's largest in ASEAN. Vietnam currently has 205 valid investment projects in Cambodia with a total registered capital of 2.94 billion USD, ranking first in ASEAN and among the five countries with the largest direct investment in Cambodia. Laos and Cambodia are both leading countries among the 79 countries and territories that Vietnam invests in abroad.

Educational and training cooperation has received special attention from the leaders of the Party and State of the three countries. Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia all give high priority to widely disseminating to the people, especially the younger generation, the historical values ​​of solidarity, friendship and mutual sacrifice among the three countries.

In addition, Vietnam always prioritizes supporting Laos and Cambodia to improve the quality of human resources. The number of exchange students between Vietnam and Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia is increasing with increasingly high quality, being a human resource that actively contributes to the development of each country, and at the same time is an extremely important foundation to promote cultural exchange, enhance understanding and communication between the people of the three countries.

In addition, cooperation in the fields of transportation, culture-society, tourism, science-technology is also developing strongly. In particular, the work of handling legal documents for people of Vietnamese origin in Cambodia has made new progress, which is a premise for creating better and better conditions for the Vietnamese community to live and do business in Cambodia. Recently, Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni signed a decree granting citizenship to 3 cases of people of Vietnamese origin.

During the visit, President To Lam is expected to hold talks, meetings and contacts with all senior leaders of Laos and Cambodia. This is an opportunity for senior leaders to review high-level agreements, important areas of cooperation and outline future cooperation directions.

The visit will certainly create new momentum to develop more deeply, comprehensively and strongly the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Laos and the good neighborliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation and long-term sustainability between Vietnam and Cambodia; as well as promote cooperation within multilateral frameworks such as ASEAN, Mekong sub-region cooperation mechanisms and the United Nations.

Thank you very much, Deputy Minister!

Source: https://nhandan.vn/chuyen-tham-cua-chu-tich-nuoc-co-y-nghi-to-lon-cho-quan-he-viet-nam-lao-camuchia-post818280.html