Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung said that at a meeting with reporters on December 22 right after the ceremony to exchange the documents ratifying the “Supplementary Treaty to the 1985 Treaty on the Delimitation of National Boundaries and the 2005 Supplementary Treaty” (known as the 2019 Supplementary Treaty) and the protocol on land border demarcation and marker planting. Both documents were signed under the witness of Prime Ministers of the two countries on October 5, 2019 in Hanoi.
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Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung |
According to Trung, as agreed by the two countries, the 2019 Supplementary Treaty and the protocol on land border demarcation and marker planting took effect immediately after the exchange of the ratification documents. He added that these important documents will help lift bilateral relations to a new height and realize the motto of “good neighborliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation, and long-term sustainability” as agreed on by their senior leaders.
The Deputy Foreign Minister quoted a passage from Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh’s speech at the ceremony to exchange the two documents, saying that these two legal documents demonstrate the resolve and goodwill of Vietnam and Cambodia to jointly deal with common border issues.
The two legal documents, along with the 1985 Treaty on the Delimitation of National Boundaries and the 2005 Supplementary Treaty, will serve as the fundamental legal framework for Vietnam and Cambodia to effectively manage and develop their land border in the new context. They will help firmly safeguard security, defense, and social order and safety along the shared borderline, foster development cooperation, friendship exchange, and improve living standards of residents in border areas of the two countries, and build a shared borderline of peace, stability, cooperation, and sustainable development. These legal documents will also contribute to strengthening ASEAN’s solidarity and promoting the bloc’s prestige and stature in the world.
Trung told the press that these documents once again affirm the values of the border-related treaties, agreements, and deals signed by the two countries over the past time. They serve as a basis for both countries to coordinate in carrying out border management and accelerate the completion of border demarcation and marker planting along the entire borderline.
Regarding future missions, the Deputy Foreign Minister said that in the coming time relevant agencies of Vietnam and Cambodia should work together to implement many important contents in these documents.
For Vietnam’s part, under the 2016 law on international treaties, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is responsible for building a plan on the implementation of the two documents and submitting it to the Prime Minister for approval. This will be an important legal basis for related ministries, sectors, and localities to effectively carry out the documents.
In the coming time, the two sides will work together to hand over and manage the borderline and border markers in line with the protocol on land border demarcation and marker planting. They will accelerate negotiations to build international treaties on border and border gate management regulations and complete the border demarcation and marker planting on the remaining part of the border.
Trung said that the effective implementation of the two legal documents holds critical importance to the protection of national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, security, and social order and safety in the country’s western border areas. It will contribute to enhancing and developing good neighborliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation, and long-term sustainability between Vietnam and Cambodia.
Translated by Tran Hoai