Vietnam pushes Hun Sen to speed up the unfair border demarcation?

Vietnam, Cambodia speed up border demarcation

06/11/2009
VOV News (Hanoi)

The Chairmen of the Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Committee for Border Demarcation and Marker Planting met in Siem Riep, Cambodia, on June 8-9 to discuss measures to speed up the progress of land border demarcation and market [KI-Media: marker?] planting.

The Vietnamese delegation to the meeting was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Ho Xuan Son, chairman of the Vietnam-Cambodia joint border committee; and the Cambodian delegation was headed by Senior Minister Var Kim Hong, chairman of the Cambodia-Vietnam border committee.

In an atmosphere of friendship and mutual understanding, the two sides discussed ways of addressing important marker positions along the Vietnam-Cambodia land border and reviewed the implementation of the agreements previously reached by the two countries at the third session of the joint committee in Ho Chi Minh City in March this year.

They proposed measures to accelerate the pace of demarcation and marker planting work, including Vietnam’s plan to train cartographers for Cambodia.

The two sides agreed to ensure the complementation of border management regulations and maintain stability in border areas during the border demarcation and market planting process.

Prior to the chairmen’s meeting, the 8 th session of the Joint Technical Working Group and the 10th session of the committee’s mapping group took place in Phnom Penh from June 1-6.

Border issues important to Vietnam ... especially when it can still dictate its will on Hun Xen's regime

Border issues important to Vietnam: party official

Monday, March 23, 2009
Thanh Nien News (Hanoi)

Sea and island borders are particularly important to Vietnam, said a Communist Party official at a two-day review of borders and diplomacy that ended in the northern port city of Hai Phong Saturday.

The party and government always aim to implement sea and island border policy while taking into account landmark planting campaigns and foreign information from diplomatic offices, said To Huy Rua, Politburo member and Chief of the Central Committee for Education and Information Dissemination .

The committee has built plans to carry out awareness programs on border demarcation and landmark planting between Vietnam and China, Cambodia and Laos, Rua said.

This year’s works will highlight the party and government policy to always solve border and other diplomatic disputes, including ones related to the East Sea, through peaceful negotiations with the nations involved, said representatives at the meeting.

Vietnam is willing to cooperate with all those concerned to solve possible future problems with the aim of strengthening peace and cooperation in the region, according to the committee.

Rua said the committee would also work to enhance awareness of protecting the country’s sovereignty and territory.

Also at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem said the government would hold seminars to collect expert and public opinion on building a cohesive foreign information strategy through 2020.

Reported by Huong Giang

A defining moment draws near

Var Kimhong: The border with Laos will be fully demarcated by the end of June. (Photo: KAY KIMSONG)

Friday, 30 May 2008
Written by Kay Kimsong
The Phnom Penh Post

Cambodia expects to finish demarcating its border with Laos in June and its boundary with Vietnam on schedule by 2012, but there is no timeframe for concluding negotiations with Thailand, a senior government official said.

Var Kimhong, the chairman of the Government Border Committee, told reporters on May 17 the Cambodia-Laos border committee had inspected 86 percent of the markers along the 540-kilometer border and only a few issues remained to be finalized.

A 14-member Laotian delegation will be in Phnom Penh from June 3 to 5 for talks on the border, said a senior official at the Laotian embassy, Kengchai Sixanonh.

“The Cambodia-Laos joint border committee has been working very smoothly and I think the relationship will get better in the future,” Kengchai said.

Kimhong meanwhile said work on demarcating the border with Vietnam had been accelerated under an additional treaty signed with Hanoi in 2005.

He said the treaty increased from one to five the number of groups working on delineating the 1,270km border, which will have more than 350 granite markers.

However, Kimhong said differences with Bangkok over the 805km border with Thailand remained a problem, and he referred to a reported incursion by armed Thai paramilitary rangers on May 16 during which some houses were damaged at Choam Sa Ngam, in Anlong Veng district of Oddar Meanchey province.

Kimhong said he was “surprised” by the incursion because negotiations had been taking place with Bangkok on opening a border crossing at Choam Sa Ngam linking Oddar Meanchey with Thailand’s Si Sa Ket province.

The governor of Anlong Veng district, Yin Phanna, said on May 19 the situation had “cooled down” after talks earlier that day between Cambodian officials, including members of the provincial border commission, and Thai army officers.

“Negotiations were the only way to solve the issue,” Phanna said, adding that no Cambodian troops were deployed in the area where the incursion took place.

Despite occasional incidents along the border with Thailand, Kimhong said Cambodia regarded the bilateral relationship as one of “eternal friendship.”

“We are like brothers or friends who live near each other ... we don’t need to deploy any troops,” Kimhong said.

The Cambodia-Thailand Joint Border Commission began its demarcation work in 2006 – three years after the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to resolve border issues – and has focused its efforts on finding the 73 markers installed by a French-Siamese commission.

“The search for border markers has no schedule or timeframe for completing the task; what is most important is that an agreement can be reached,” Kimhong said.

Asked about the main obstacles to demarcating the Cambodia-Thai border, Kimhong said the legacies of colonialism and years of conflict meant that it was not a “normal” border.

Hun Neng thanks VN for the road linking Cambodia NR 7 to the unfair border imposed by VN in Memot

10/11/2007
Cambodia, Viet Nam open additional border gate

A new border gate between Memot district in Cambodia’s Kampong Cham province and Loc Ninh district of Viet Nam’s Binh Phuoc province has been inaugurated.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony on November 7, Governor of Kampong Cham province Hun Neng expressed thanks to the Binh Phuoc People’s Committee for its help to build a 31km road linking the new border gate to Cambodia’s highway 7.

Construction of the project began on the same day.

Source: VNA