The 12 th meeting of the Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Committee for Economic, Cultural, Scientific and Technological Cooperation opened in Hanoi on Aug. 23.

Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, who is also Chairman of the Vietnam-Cambodia Cooperation Sub-committee, and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Hor Namhong, who also acts as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Chairman of the Cambodia-Vietnam Cooperation Sub-committee, co-chaired the meeting.

The two sides reviewed the implementation of agreements reached at the 11 th meeting of the committee. They noted with pleasure that under the close guidance of the two countries’ high-ranking leaders, their friendship and comprehensive cooperation had been consolidated and developed, bringing practical results for both.

Economic, trade and investment cooperation posted significant progress, with two-way trade reaching over 1.8 billion USD in 2010, and Vietnam had become one of Cambodia ’s major investors.

The participants discussed a wide range of issues and unanimously agreed on ways to strengthen cooperation in the future for the benefit of the people of the two nations.

They reiterated their resolve to accomplish land border demarcation and marker planting by the end of 2012 as agreed by the two countries’ high-ranking leaders, in order to build a peaceful and stable common borderline.

The two sides will also continue their coordination in the search and repatriation of remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers who died during wars in Cambodia .

They reaffirmed the principle that strictly prohibited hostile forces to use the territory of one country to harass the security of the other and reached consensus on the early signing of an extradition pact.

Vietnam and Cambodia will work together to ensure legitimate rights for overseas people of each country, the meeting was heard.

The two sides agreed on the significance of the protection and sustainable use of water resource of the Mekong river, further cooperation with countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region, the Mekong River Commission, the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle, the Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam group, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and other international forums.

Closing the meeting, Foreign Minister Minh and Deputy PM Hor Namhong signed the minutes of the meeting, which set the venue for the 13 th meeting of the committee in Cambodia in 2012./.