In his speech, Vietnamese Minister of Justice Le Thanh Long recalled that ten years ago, in December 2009, the Ministries of Justice of Vietnam and Cambodia signed a memorandum of understanding on legal and judicial cooperation, creating an important legal foundation for bilateral cooperation activities.
Since then, many activities, including high-level delegation exchanges, experience-sharing, realization of agreements on mutual legal assistance in civil matters and extradition of sentenced persons, have been carried out.
The Vietnamese minister also highlighted the agreement on organizing in rotation such a biennial judicial conference as one of the remarkable cooperation outcomes.
The conference is seen as a forum for the two sides to discuss approaches to boosting legal and judicial cooperation between Vietnamese and Cambodian provinces with the shared borderlines, exchanging experiences and enhancing friendship between judicial ministries and departments of the two countries.
Minister Long emphasized the practical significance of the meeting and hoped that the cooperation mechanism between the two justice ministries would be further completed, contributing to the sustainable development of border provinces, neighborliness between the two peoples, and peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region and world.
Addressing the conference, Cambodian Minister of Justice Ang Vong Vathana highly appreciated the previous meeting’s results and stressed that the fine cooperation between the two countries in general and the two judicial agencies in particular have importantly contributed to the maintenance of peace and order in border provinces.
He hoped that the two countries’ judicial agencies would develop their collaboration, boost information dissemination of each country’s laws for people living in the shared borderline and further share experiences during their mission accomplishment.
Ten Vietnamese provinces sharing the borderline with Cambodian provinces are Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Long An, Dong Thap, An Giang and Kien Giang.
The first conference of its kind was held in the Vietnamese province of Tay Ninh in August 2017.
Translated by Song Anh