Phnom Penh (VNA) – Prime Minister Le Minh Hung’s official visit to Cambodia on October 9-10 is expected to provide fresh impetus to the Vietnam-Cambodia relationship, translating high-level political trust into more concrete and effective cooperation across a range of fields, stated Vietnamese Ambassador to Cambodia Nguyen Minh Vu.
The diplomat said the trip is part of PM Hung’s first overseas bilateral tour in his capacity as Prime Minister, demonstrating the highest priority Vietnam attaches to consolidating and further deepening its relations with Cambodia.
Against the backdrop of complex and unpredictable international and regional developments, the visit reflects Vietnam’s determination to work with Cambodia to maintain an environment of peace, friendship, cooperation and shared development in the region, while promoting bilateral cooperation in all areas.
It is also expected to help strengthen trust, close bonds and mutual understanding between the Vietnamese Government leader and Cambodia’s top leaders.
The ambassador noted that since the beginning of 2026, the two sides have maintained a high frequency of high-level exchanges, agreed on important orientations and reached significant strategic understandings.
These included General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and President To Lam’s state visit to Cambodia in February, during which he attended a high-level meeting between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Cambodian People's Party and a meeting of the three Party chiefs of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos; Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei Hun Manet’s official visit to Vietnam in June, when he attended and addressed the third ASEAN Future Forum; and Cambodian National Assembly President Samdech Khuon Sudary’s official visit to Vietnam in July.
Against this backdrop, the upcoming visit is expected to provide an opportunity for the two sides to review and address outstanding issues and obstacles in bilateral cooperation, concretise and realise existing commitments and agreements, and identify new strategic orientations and priorities for bilateral ties in the coming period.
A number of Vietnamese ministers, sectoral and local leaders and business representatives will accompany the PM, while the two sides are expected to sign a number of cooperation documents, he said.
He expressed his expectation that the visit will not only further consolidate political trust, strengthen economic, cultural and educational cooperation and promote people-to-people exchanges, but also generate new momentum for bilateral ties to develop in greater depth and become more substantive and effective.
Vu highlighted economic, trade and investment cooperation as areas requiring particular attention, noting that the two countries could make better use of the complementarities between their economies and work towards the goal of raising bilateral trade to 20 billion USD in the near future.
He noted that bilateral trade reached a record 11.3 billion USD in 2025 and about 8.7 billion USD in the first eight months of 2026, up 8.3% year on year. Vietnam is currently Cambodia’s third-largest trading partner, its second-largest source of imports and its second-largest market for Cambodian exports.
Vietnamese businesses have also established a significant presence in Cambodia, with 223 investment projects and total registered capital of nearly 3.4 billion USD. These projects have created jobs for tens of thousands of workers, contributed significantly to the Cambodian budget and made practical contributions to social welfare.
Tourism has likewise become an increasingly important bridge between the two peoples. Vietnam was Cambodia’s largest source of international visitors in the first eight months of 2026, with more than 585,000 arrivals. Meanwhile, around 630,000 Cambodian tourists visited Vietnam in the first nine months of the year, up 40.5% year on year, making Cambodia the sixth-largest source market for Vietnam.
He said that PM Hung’s visit could further strengthen the complementary links between the two economies and create conditions for a more comprehensive Vietnam-Cambodia economic connectivity ecosystem.
Transport infrastructure is expected to be an important component of this connectivity. The two sides have agreed on the connection point for the Ho Chi Minh City-Moc Bai-Bavet-Phnom Penh expressway, paving the way for the key route to become operational as planned by the end of 2027.
The official opening of the Khanh Binh-Chrey Thom international border gate pair on October 3 has also created more favourable conditions for travel, trade, tourism and people-to-people exchanges.
The ambassador highlighted strong connectivity between the two countries in transport, energy infrastructure, as well as development policies and strategies, adding that the two sides are working together to remove policy and institutional bottlenecks, thereby creating a more open legal and policy framework for stronger cooperation.
The participation of major Vietnamese businesses in the Prime Minister’s delegation is expected to provide an opportunity for enterprises from both sides to seek partnerships and put forward proposals to the two countries’ leaders on removing obstacles and creating more favourable mechanisms and policies for investment and business activities, he said.
The Ambassador also pointed to science and technology, innovation and digital transformation as emerging areas with considerable potential for bilateral connectivity.
As Vietnam and Cambodia enter a pivotal stage of development and a new development era, the ambassador highlighted the particularly important role of young people, young intellectuals and the next generation of officials in carrying forward the Vietnam-Cambodia friendship.
He expressed his belief that the PM’s official visit would mark an important milestone in translating political trust between Vietnam and Cambodia into concrete strategies, commitments and actions, thereby laying stronger foundations for a comprehensive and sustainable economic connectivity ecosystem./.
VNA
