After the welcoming ceremony, General Phan Van Giang and General Tea Seiha held talks.
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Vietnamese Defense Minister General Phan Van Giang and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister General Tea Seiha review the guards-of-honor. |
At the talks, General Phan Van Giang expressed his delight at visiting Cambodia; attending the meeting of Defense Ministers of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia; and attending the joint search and rescue exercise of Vietnamese, Lao, Cambodian militaries. The Vietnamese Defense Minister believed that these events would be a success, contributing to deepening the solidarity among the three countries in general and the three militaries in particular.
General Phan Van Giang underlined that Vietnam always treasures and gives top priority to consolidating and enhancing its good neighborliness, traditional friendship, and long-term comprehensive cooperation with Cambodia, adding that Vietnam is steadfast in supporting Cambodia’s independence, peace, stability, and development.
For his part, General Tea Seiha welcomed General Phan Van Giang to visit Cambodia and expressed his sincere thanks to the Vietnam People’s Army for frequent assistance so that Cambodia builds the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces stronger. He stressed that they would uphold and bring into play the results cultivated by the two sides’ forefathers to further promote the bilateral relations.
At the talks, General Phan Van Giang and General Tea Seiha expressed their delight at the strong development in the bilateral defense ties between the two countries over the past time. All contents regulated in the protocol on defense cooperation in the 2020-2024 period have been deployed effectively, especially in exchange of all-level delegations and cooperation mechanisms. Many historical first-ever defense cooperation activities were co-held, such as the first Vietnam-Cambodia Border Defense Friendship Exchange in 2022 and the first Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia Border Defense Friendship Exchange in 2023.
Meanwhile, the two sides have actively and pro-actively cooperated in fields of political affairs, particularly in raising awareness of the two militaries’ young officers of the bilateral solidarity; cooperation to maintain security and order on land and at sea; education and training; continuing joint efforts to search for and repatriate remains of Vietnam’s volunteer soldiers and advisors who died during wartime in Cambodia. At the same time, both sides closely worked together and supported each other in regional and international multilateral forums held by each side, especially during the Vietnam’s ASEAN 2020 Chairmanship and Cambodia’s ASEAN 2022 Chairmanship.
In the coming time, the two sides agreed to continue making the bilateral defense cooperation more practical and effective, to deserve to an important pillar of the two Vietnam-Cambodia relations, focusing on fields of delegation exchange at all levels; political education and dissemination of the importance of the bilateral solidarity; maintaining security and order on land and at sea; increasing information sharing to promptly discover and effectively address any immerging issues at the grassroots level, and fight cross-border crimes; creating favorable conditions for the two sides’ border people and fishermen to develop their economy; improving quality of human resources training; and continuing to support each other in regional and international issues, contributing to solidarity and central role of ASEAN.
At the end of the talks, General Phan Van Giang and General Tea Seiha signed a protocol on defense cooperation in the 2025-2029 period and the 2025 cooperation plan between the two defense ministries.
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General Phan Van Giang and the high-ranking delegation of Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense offer incense and flowers at the Vietnam-Cambodia friendship monument in Phnom Penh. |
* Earlier the same day, General Phan Van Giang and the high-ranking delegation of Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense offered incense and flowers at the Vietnam-Cambodia friendship monument in Phnom Penh.
Reported by Thu Trang from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Translated by Minh Anh