Phnom Penh, December 10, 2025 – The Europe Today: Minister of Foreign Affairs Lê Hoài Trung and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Prak Sokhonn co-chaired the 21st Meeting of the Việtnam–Cambodia Joint Committee for Economic, Cultural, Scientific and Technical Cooperation in Siem Reap on Tuesday, reaffirming the two countries’ commitment to deepening their traditional friendship and expanding multifaceted cooperation.
Held in a spirit of friendship, mutual trust and understanding, the meeting reviewed progress across key areas of cooperation — including political and diplomatic relations, defence and security, trade and investment, culture, tourism, education and training, and transport — and outlined new directions for future collaboration.
Prak Sokhonn congratulated Việtnam on its significant achievements under the leadership of the Communist Party of Việtnam (CPV) headed by Party General Secretary Tô Lâm. He expressed confidence that Việtnam would meet its ambitious development goals, including achieving double-digit economic growth, attaining upper-middle-income status by 2030, and becoming a high-income developed nation by 2045.
He described Cambodia–Việtnam relations as “special and invaluable,” rooted in shared history and strengthened through decades of mutual support.
Foreign Minister Lê Hoài Trung praised Cambodia’s strong socio-economic progress and expressed confidence that the country, under the leadership of the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and the Royal Government, would achieve its development targets of upper-middle-income status by 2030 and high-income status by 2050. He reaffirmed Việtnam’s consistent priority of enhancing its traditional friendship and cooperation with Cambodia.
Both sides highlighted the positive momentum in bilateral ties, including the successful high-level meeting between the two Parties in February 2025, regular exchanges among senior leaders, and the effective operation of established cooperation mechanisms. Recent progress in defence and security cooperation was also noted, including defence policy dialogue, border-to-border friendship events, a trilateral meeting among the defence ministers of Việt Nam, Cambodia and Laos, and a joint search-and-rescue exercise.
Economic cooperation has also advanced, with bilateral trade reaching US$10.4 billion in the first 11 months of 2025. Cooperation in other areas has continued to expand steadily.
Both sides welcomed the inauguration of the Tân Nam–Meun Chey international border gate pair on Monday in the presence of both Prime Ministers, stating that the new border gate would enhance regional connectivity, facilitate transport and trade, and strengthen people-to-people exchanges.
Local-level cooperation has similarly progressed, demonstrated by the successful 13th conference on cooperation and development of border provinces held in November 2025.
To realise agreements made by high-level leaders and create breakthroughs in economic cooperation, the two countries agreed to continue promoting high-level and multi-level exchanges, foster public understanding of the historical value of Việtnam–Cambodia relations, uphold the principle of preventing hostile forces from using either country’s territory for activities harmful to the other, and enhance coordination in border management and transnational crime prevention.
The two sides also agreed to develop infrastructure and connectivity, modernise border procedures to facilitate investment and business operations, strengthen transport linkages and trade flows, and promote cooperation in tourism, education, training and people-to-people exchanges. They committed to working together on water resource management, environmental protection, climate change response and close coordination at multilateral forums such as the United Nations, ASEAN and Mekong sub-regional mechanisms.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Trung and Prak Sokhonn signed the official minutes on behalf of their respective governments. Both sides agreed to convene the 22nd meeting of the Việt Nam–Cambodia Joint Committee in Việt Nam at an appropriate time in 2026.
Trung Meets Cambodian Deputy PM Neth Savoeun
On Monday, Foreign Minister Trung also held talks with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Neth Savoeun, who commended Việt Nam’s strong development achievements over the past year, including its leading regional economic growth and successful hosting of major national events and international conferences.
Savoeun expressed confidence that Việt Nam would successfully organise the upcoming 14th National Party Congress and conveyed greetings from CPP President Hun Sen and Prime Minister Hun Manet to Party General Secretary Tô Lâm, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính and other Vietnamese leaders.
Minister Trung conveyed greetings from Việtnam’s top leaders to King Norodom Sihamoni, President Hun Sen, Prime Minister Hun Manet and other Cambodian leaders. He expressed hope for further elevating bilateral cooperation, particularly in enhancing transport connectivity, strengthening coordination in land border management and combating transnational crimes. He also thanked the Cambodian Government for supporting the Vietnamese-origin community in Cambodia.
Regarding recent tensions between Thailand and Cambodia, Trung said Việt Nam was closely monitoring developments and urged both sides to exercise restraint, reduce tensions, engage in dialogue, respect legitimate interests and honour existing agreements.
He reaffirmed Việtnam’s consistent support for peaceful dispute resolution, long-term stability, ASEAN unity and regional peace, cooperation and development.
