Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung and his entourage began an official visit to Cambodia on
November 15 to attend the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) summits at the
invitation of Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Photo: Vietnam+

Both PMs held talks to strengthen
and develop the friendship and cooperation between the two nations after the
welcoming ceremony.

PM Hun Sen highlighted the visit by
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his entourage and expressed his belief that
the visit will give a fresh impetus to promoting the traditional friendship and
comprehensive cooperation between the two countries. PM Dung said he was very
glad to be re-visiting Cambodia and highly appreciated Cambodia’s prestige and
status in the regional and international arena.

PM Hun Sen also highlighted
Vietnam’s role as ASEAN 2010 President and its successful organization of the 17^th
ASEAN Summit and related summits. He also gave congratulations for the 11^th
Vietnam’s Communist Party Congress which will be completed by early 2011. He
said Vietnamese investors have boosted direct investment in Cambodia while other
nations met difficulties in overseas investment due to the impact of the global
financial crisis.

Both PMs expressed delight at the
fine development in the relationship between the two nations in recent years,
and determined to bring the friendship and comprehensive cooperative relations
to a new height. They also agreed to promote exchange of delegations at all
levels, devise effective measures to promote cooperation in such fields as
trade, investment, banking, energy, power, oil and gas, and transportation. Both
PMs also encouraged service and trade activities among localities, especially
localities at border areas.

The two leaders also agreed to
closely cooperate in the fields of security, national defense and anti-terrorism
and trans-national crime, human trafficking, and drug smuggling. They affirmed
that none hostile forces are allowed to destroy the friendly relations between
the two nations and showed determination to complete the border demarcation and
marker planting by 2012. PM Dung highly appreciated that Cambodia’s role in
creating favorable conditions for overseas Vietnamese to live and do business in
the country and asked Cambodia to further facilitate the activities of overseas
Vietnamese.

At the talk, both PMs also discussed
issues on strengthening cooperation within ASEAN as well as the sub-regional
cooperation mechanism. After the talk, both PMs witnessed the signing ceremony
of a payment agreement between the State Bank of Vietnam and the Cambodia Royal
Bank.

VietNamNet/VOV