Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will pay an official visit to Vietnam from December 26-28 at the invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung.

The visit aims to affirm the special relations between the two countries and boost their cooperation in various areas, including economics, trade and investment, while exchanging issues of common concerns.

Vietnam and Cambodia set up diplomatic ties on June 24, 1967, marking a milestone in the two countries’ fraternal and neighbouring relationship.

Last year, the two sides organised a broad range of activities to celebrate the 45th founding anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic ties.

Presently, both sides are joining hands to celebrate the 35th anniversary of victory over the Pol Pot genocidal regime in Cambodia, which saw great contribution of Vietnamese experts and volunteers.

The Vietnam-Cambodia relations have been expanded to many areas, contributing to the two countries’ common development.

High-ranking visits by the two nations’ leaders take place regularly. During the visit to Cambodia in March 2005 by Party General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong, the two sides issued a joint statement to lift their ties under the motto “good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation, long lasting sustainability”.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung headed a high-ranking Vietnamese to attend the funeral of King’s Farther Norodom Sihanouk in February.

Meanwhile, President of the Cambodia National Assembly Heng Samrin led a delegation to attend General Vo Nguyen Giap’s funeral in October.

In recent years, trade ties between the two countries have developed unceasingly. Two-way trade in 2012 reached 3.3 billion USD and 2.94 billion USD in the first 10 months of this year.

By this June, Vietnam invested in 126 projects worth 3 billion USD in Cambodia, focusing on industrial crops planting, mining, oil exploration and business, power resources development, telecommunications, finance and banking.

The two countries have also seen development in scientific, educational, health and tourism cooperation. Vietnam has granted many scholarships for Cambodian students and post graduates as well as sent doctors to provide medical check-ups for people living in border areas.

Vietnam and Cambodia have worked closely to exchange information to deal with border-related arising issues, strengthen training cooperation, maintain joint patrol at sea, search and rescue activities and repatriate remains of the fallen Vietnamese volunteer soldiers.

Border demarcation and marking have been conducted on the basis of their special friendship, the leadership of the two countries’ leaders and the cooperation of related agencies.

To date, as many as 239/314 mark positions have been identified, 279/372 marks have been built and 850/1137 km of the border line have been demarcated.

At regional and international forums, the two countries have cooperated and supported each other as well as within the framework of the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam partnership, the Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam, the Great Mekong Sub-region (GMS), the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMEC), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the UN.-VNA