Looking back upon the history and development of the two countries over the past years, we are delighted at the achievements recorded by the Vietnamese and Cambodian peoples as well as the development of their close relationship and mutual support.
Vietnam and Cambodia share a borderline and enjoy a traditional relationship. Through ups and downs in history, the Vietnam-Cambodia relationship has been consolidated by generations of their leaders and people and become an invaluable asset of the two nations.
After the long-time struggles against the common foreign invaders, the Vietnamese and Cambodian peoples should have enjoyed a peaceful, prosperous and happy life, but the Pol Pot-Ieng Sary clique conducted a brutal genocidal policy in Cambodia and encroached upon Vietnam’s Southwestern territory. In response to the acts of invasion and massacres of innocent Vietnamese people conducted by Pol Pot troops and to an urgent call from the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation and Cambodian people, the Vietnamese Party, State, people and military exercised the legitimate right to self-defense to prevent the invasion of Pol Pot troops and help the Cambodian people overthrow the genocidal regime of Pol Pot on January 7, 1979. The joint historic victory of the two nations over the genocidal regime, on one hand, maintained Vietnam’s national independence, sovereignty and national integrity and put an end to the sad page in the history of Cambodia and opened up an era of independence, freedom, peace, neutrality and development for the country on the other hand. Shortly after its establishment on January 8, 1979, the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Council asked the Vietnamese volunteer soldiers to further cooperate with the Cambodian armed forces in eliminating remnants of Pol Pot regime and building its revolutionary government. Together with military assistance, Vietnam sent advisors to help Cambodia build grassroots governments and provided material assistance for the country to recover its economy.
During the fierce and arduous struggle, many Vietnamese volunteer troops laid down their lives or parts of their bodies in different Cambodian battlefields. The two Parties, States and peoples of the two countries forever remember the great sacrifice of the Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and advisors who braved all hardships and risks of their lives to fulfill the noble international mission of helping the Cambodian people overthrow the Pol Pot genocidal regime. The pure solidarity between the two peoples in combat has gone down in the histories of the two countries and cannot be easily distorted by any forces.
After the 1991 Paris Peace Accords and Cambodia’s General Election in 1993, the Vietnam-Cambodia relationship embarked on a new development stage. With the motto of “good neighborliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation and long-term sustainability,” the two countries have obtained practical cooperation results for the benefits of the two peoples. Leaders of the two countries regularly exchanged visits and reaffirmed their determination to further strengthen solidarity, traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation. In addition, practical cooperation mechanisms among ministries, agencies and localities of the two countries were set up, contributing to beefing up their comprehensive cooperation.
Over the past years, the two countries have seen rapid positive development in their economic, trade and investment relations. In the first ten months of 2018, the two-way trade turnover reached USD 3.8 billion, up by 21% compared to the same period of the previous year. At present, more than 200 Vietnamese businesses are investing in Cambodia with the total registered capital of USD 3.02 billion while Cambodia is running 18 projects in Vietnam with the total capital investment of nearly USD 60 million.
Regarding security and defense cooperation, the two sides have closely cooperated in exchanging information and dealing with cases emerging in border areas, maintained regular joint patrols and reaffirmed the principle of not allowing hostile forces to use one country’s territory to undermine security and stability of the other.
They have also closely cooperated in searching, collecting and repatriating remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers who laid down their lives during wartime in Cambodia. Vietnam and Cambodia are also working on completing border marker planting in order to build a borderline of peace, stability and sustainable development. In realizing their open foreign policies and multilateralization and diversification of international relations, the two countries have cooperated with each other at regional cooperation mechanisms, including the Cambodia - Laos - Vietnam (CLV) Development Triangle, Cambodia - Laos - Myanmar - Vietnam (CLMV) cooperation and Ayeyawady - Chao Phraya - Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS).
Forty years is not a long period of time in the history of the Vietnam-Cambodia relationship, but a period of great significance in bilateral relations. Solidarity, faithfulness and mutual assistance between Vietnam and Cambodia were the motivation for the two militaries and peoples to stand shoulder to shoulder in overthrowing the Pol Pot genocidal regime, reviving the Land of Temples and strengthening relations between the two countries. With such a time-honored friendship and cooperation, we strongly believe that the good neighborliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation and long-term sustainability between Vietnam and Cambodia will certainly be lifted to a new height for practical benefits to the two peoples and for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world as a whole.
Reported by Editorial Board
Translated by Tran Hoai