Top Vietnamese, Cambodian legislators hold talks
Phnom Penh (VNA) – National Assembly
Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue held talks with President of the National Assembly of
Cambodia Samdech Heng Samrin in Phnom Penh on November 19, following the official welcome ceremony for the Vietnamese leader.
NA Chairman Hue congratulated Cambodia on
positive results on its capacity as ASEAN Chair 2022 and success of the recent
40th and 41st ASEAN Summits and related summits.
He believed that Cambodia will successfully
hold the upcoming 43rd ASEAN
Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA-43), making substantive contributions to
ASEAN and improving its role and position.
Heng Samrin, for his part, thanked the
Vietnamese Party, State and people for providing support for the Cambodian people
in the past struggle for national independence and current national construction
and development, especially helping them escape from the genocidal regime.
Hailing Vietnam’s impressive achievements in the
fight against COVID-19 and post-pandemic socio-economic recovery and development, he wished
that the Vietnamese people, under the leadership of the Communist Party of
Vietnam led by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, will successfully realise
the Resolution adopted by the 13th National Party Congress and make
important strides to turn Vietnam into a modern industrialised nation.
On the occasion, he also thanked Vietnam for
supporting the construction of the Cambodian NA’s new building, thus
contributing to improving the working efficiency of the Cambodian legislature.
The work is scheduled for completion in 2024.
Expressing satisfaction with the development of
Vietnam-Cambodia ties over the past years, both sides said bilateral political
relations have kept growing via the exchange of high-level visits through all
channels and effective cooperation mechanisms. They affirmed determination to further
consolidate friendship and deepen their substantive and effective cooperation, considering
it an indispensable requirement for both countries.
The
two sides vowed to continue facilitating the exchange of delegations at all
levels; create favourable conditions and seek effective measures to boost cooperation
in fields of great potential such as trade-investment, banking, agriculture,
industrial crops, education and training, information and communications,
transportation, culture and people-to-people exchange while encouraging trade,
services and cooperation activities between localities, especially those in
border areas.
In national defence-security, they pledged to enhance joint work
to fight terrorism, trans-national crimes, smuggling, drug and human
trafficking. They expressed the principle of not allowing any hostile force to
use the territory of one country to harm the other's security and showed determination to seek mutually acceptable solutions to completing the remaining
16% of land border demarcation, in an effort to build a borderline of peace,
stability, cooperation and development between Vietnam and Cambodia.
Chairman Hue suggested Cambodia continue creating more favourable
conditions related to legal papers for Cambodians of Vietnamese origin to
settle down their lives. He thanked Cambodia’s relevant agencies for working
closely with Vietnam to save Vietnamese citizens who were tricked and forced
into illegal labour in several foreigners' business establishments in Cambodia. He
also hoped for more support to Vietnamese citizens in order to help them return home.
President Heng Samrin promised to protect rights of and ensure non-discrimination against foreign enterprises, including Vietnamese
investors, operating in Cambodia.
About coordination between the two legislatures, both leaders
highlighted the importance of parliamentary cooperation bilaterally and
multilaterally. They also hailed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding
on cooperation between the two legislatures during the visit.
The Vietnamese guest proposed maintaining high-level visits by the
top legislators, NA committees' leaders, female and young parliamentarians, and initially
creating conditions for the organisation of the meeting of the Vietnamese and Cambodian friendship
parliamentarians in central Vietnam in December.
Host and guest vowed to oversee the implementation of bilateral
and multilateral international treaties and agreements to which the two
countries are members, especially new cooperation contents agreed by the two Prime
Ministers, build partnerships in upholding international law and promote multilateral solutions to global challenges such as climate change, green and
sustainable development, food- energy-water resources and health security while
further stepping up joint cooperation and development programmes for the sake of
peace, cooperation and development along the border areas.
On regional and global issues, they stressed that Vietnam
and Cambodia need to strengthen coordination and mutual support at multilateral forums,
especially within the framework of ASEAN and the Mekong sub-regional
cooperation mechanisms; actively contribute to strengthening solidarity and
unity and upholding ASEAN’s central role, thus making positive contributions to
peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.
The two leaders underscored the importance of
ensuring security, safety, freedom of navigation and overflight, enhancing trust
building, refraining from threat or use of force, adhering to international law, settling disputes by
peaceful means in line with international law, including the 1982 United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Following the talks, they signed a MoU on cooperation between
the two legislatures; and witnessed the signing of a cooperation agreement
between the Vietnamese NA Office and the Secretariat of the Cambodian NA, and the handover of equipment package worth 100,000 USD – a gift of the Vietnamese NA for its Cambodian counterpart./.