Ho Chi Minh City (VNA) - Vietnam and Cambodia have reaffirmed their commitment to intensifying the search, collection and repatriation of the remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who died in Cambodia during wartime, despite increasingly scarce information about burial sites.
The commitment has been made at the 25th meeting of the specialised committees of the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments, held in Ho Chi Minh City from August 16-20 to review cooperation in the search and repatriation of Vietnamese martyrs’ remains.
The Vietnamese delegation was led by Senior Lieutenant General Le Quang Minh, Deputy Director of the General Department of Politics under the Vietnam People's Army and Standing Vice Chairman of the Vietnamese committee. The Cambodian delegation was headed by General Pol Sareoun, Senior Adviser to the King of Cambodia and Chairman of the Cambodian committee.
Despite growing difficulties in locating burial sites, search and collection operations had continued effectively. During the 2025-2026 dry season, Vietnamese search teams recovered 850 sets of martyrs’ remains in Cambodia, heard the meeting.
In the coming 2026-2027 dry season, the two sides will maintain the search and repatriation mission until no further information on the burial sites of Vietnamese martyrs remains available.
Vietnam will continue to deploy 11 search and collection teams across Cambodian provinces and cities.
The two sides will also intensify public awareness campaigns and encourage people in both countries to provide information about fallen Vietnamese soldiers and their graves. They agreed to strengthen exchanges of delegations, jointly review and collect information, and conduct field surveys and assessments of cooperation between local specialised boards and search teams.
The two committees also consented to direct their standing agencies to develop new measures to improve the efficiency of the search and collection effort and strengthen coordination in gathering information about Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who died in Cambodia.
The sides will further coordinate the repair and preservation of Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Monuments in Cambodia, ensuring that the sites are properly managed and used in accordance with national regulations and local customs.
They also pledged to facilitate visits by domestic and international delegations to the monuments, contributing to stronger ties between the governments, armed forces and peoples of Vietnam and Cambodia.
At the meeting, authorised by the Vietnamese Prime Minister, the head of the Vietnamese delegation handed over the Vietnamese Government's 2026 financial assistance to the Cambodian committee./.
