Vietnam leaders convey condolences to Cambodia on disaster

11/24/2010
VOV News (Hanoi)

Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh and State President Nguyen Minh Triet on November 23 sent messages of condolence to Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni over the recent disaster in the country that killed hundreds of people.

The same day, PM Nguyen Tan Dung cabled a message of condolence to his counterpart HunSen and National Assembly chairman Nguyen Phu Trong extended sympathy to President of the Senate Chea Sim and President of National Assembly Heng Samrin.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem also sent condolences to Cambodian Deputy PM cum FM Hor Namhong.

In the messages, Vietnamese leaders expressed their deepest sympathies to Cambodian leaders and victims’ families.

The accident took place at an annual water festival in the Cambodian capital city of Phnom Penh, killing over 300 people and leaving hundreds of others injured.

Cambodia seeks mediation

In a letter to his Vietnamese counterpart (right above) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Mr Hor Namhong (left above) said the two countries would not be able to reach a deal without outside support.

Aug 14, 2010
AFP

PHNOM PENH- CAMBODIA'S foreign minister on Saturday sought regional help in resolving a border dispute with Thailand in order 'to avoid any large scale armed conflict'.

In a letter to his Vietnamese counterpart and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Mr Hor Namhong said the two countries would not be able to reach a deal without outside support.

'As the current stalemate has extinguished any hope of further bilateral negotiations and in order to avoid any large scale armed conflict... I earnestly seek assistance,' he said in the letter.

The two countries have stepped up a war of words over the spat recently, with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen warning it could lead to fresh bloodshed. Meanwhile Thai premier Abhisit Vejjajiva Tuesday called for Cambodian citizens to leave the contested territory.

The neighbouring nations have been locked in a troop standoff at their disputed border since July 2008, when the ancient Preah Vihear temple was granted UNESCO World Heritage status. The World Court ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, although its main entrance lies in Thailand. The Thai-Cambodia border has never been fully demarcated, partly because it is littered with landmines left over from decades of war in Cambodia.

Troops from both countries exchanged fire briefly on their border in June, the latest in a series of clashes between the neighbours.

Cambodia asks ASEAN to mediate border dispute with Thailand

August 15, 2010

PHNOM PENH (Xinhua) - The Cambodian government on Saturday asked the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to mediate Cambodia's border dispute with Thailand.

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Hor Namhong on Saturday sent a letter to Pham Gia Khiem, deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of Vietnam, who is the current chair of ASEAN.

In his letter, Hor said "until now, Cambodia has exercised utmost restrain and attempted to find a peaceful solution to the problem bilaterally, but to no avail."

"As the current stalemate has extinguished any hope on further bilateral negotiations and in order to avoid any large scale armed conflict..., I earnestly seek Your Excellency's assistance, as chair of ASEAN, to mediate on the matter under the ASEAN framework either as a whole or on an individual basis involving only certain ASEAN members, in line with the Principles of the ASEAN Charter, Article 2 (c) and (d)," Hor said.

Cambodia and Thailand got into border conflict just one week after Cambodia got the Temple of Preah Vihear registered as World Heritage Site in July 2008. The Cambodia-Thai border has never been fully demarcated, and Thailand continues to stake territorial claims of the 4.6 square kilometer area in the vicinity of the Temple of Preah Vihear.

Hor Namhong reiterated that the Temple of Preah Vihear is situated in territory under the sovereignty of Cambodia, citing the adjudication of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on June 15, 1962.

ASEAN groups 10 countries including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Discussion to accept the Viet encroachments?

Cambodia, Vietnam meets to discuss on border development

August 03, 2010
Xinhua

Cambodia and Vietnam opened talks on Tuesday in Cambodia's capital city of Phnom Penh to discuss border cooperation and development.

The meeting, co-chaired by Sar Kheng, deputy prime minister and minister of interior of Cambodia, and Pham Gia Khiem, deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of Vietnam, is the 6th of its kind that focuses on border cooperation and development between the two countries.

The meeting is called "Meeting on cooperation and development between border provinces of Cambodia and Vietnam," and is focused on many issues of cooperation and development including the building of infrastructure, investment, trade and services, markets development, health, tourism, education, border demarcation, security and public order.

At the opening of the one-day talk, Sar Kheng said, "The existing mechanism for cooperation is becoming an effective way for actual implementation between the two governments which is aimed at fostering and strengthening solidarity, friendship and brotherly cooperation between Cambodia and Vietnam."

He added, "Our countries have cooperated well and supported one another in the struggle against the global economic crisis for the purpose of reducing the impact from this crisis."

Pham Gia Khiem echoed Sar Kheng's speech and expressed his confidence that the meeting will further promote the bilateral cooperation in various fields.

In addition to the border cooperation and development between Cambodia and Vietnam, Laos, another neighbor of the two nations also has joined in another forum known as CLV which represents Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

The forum has its own format of CLV Triangle Development Zone which binds all the three nations to consider developing their joint borders together.

Such forum was last held on March 12-18 in Cambodia's northeastern province of Rattanakiri.

Meeting on cooperation and development between border provinces of Cambodia and Vietnam is held annually and last year it was held in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

Cambodia, Vietnam vow to strengthen cooperation [... to the benefit of Hanoi?]

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 4 (Xinhua)-- Cambodia and Vietnam vowed Friday to strengthen their cooperation in many fields of common interests for both nations, a government official said.

Koy Kuong, spokesman of foreign ministry said that at the end of the two-day meeting of the 11th joint commission between foreign ministers of Cambodia and Vietnam that concluded Friday, the two ministers had signed an agreed minute covering many fields of cooperation for common interests of the two nations.

He said, among those fields of cooperation are education, agriculture, environment, hydropower, trading and investment as well as border issue.

The foreign ministerial meeting of the Cambodia-Vietnam Joint Commission for Economic, Cultural, Scientific and Technological Cooperation was held in Cambodia's southwestern province of Preah Sihanouk from Dec. 3-4, 2009.

The meeting was co-chaired by Hor Namhong, Cambodia's deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, and his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Gia Khiem.

According to Koy Kuong, the two ministers also agreed to expand duration of stay for both nationals traveling to either country for normal passport from 14 days to 30 days and reiterated their desires to end the border demarcation by 2012.

During his stay in Cambodia, Pham Gia Khiem had paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The 12th meeting of Cambodia-Vietnam Joint Commission will be held next year in Vietnam.

Cambodia-Vietnam joint commission meeting to be held later this week

PHNOM PENH, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia and Vietnam are set to hold a joint commission meeting later this week in Cambodia's southwestern province of Sihanouk.

In a statement released on Monday, the Cambodian Foreign Ministry said the 11th Meeting of the Cambodia-Vietnam Joint Commission for Economic, Cultural, Scientific and Technological Cooperation will be held in Preah Sihanouk Province from Dec. 3-4, 2009.

It said that Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Gia Khiem will lead a delegation to attend the meeting.

During his stay in Cambodia, Pham Gia Khiem will pay a courtesy call on Prime Minister Hun Sen, and sign with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Hor Namhong on the agreed minutes of the meeting.

The door to the Indochinese Federation is now wide open: Vietnam and Cambodia to grow cooperation

Co-operation with Cambodia to grow

06-06-2009
VNS (Hanoi)

HCM CITY — Relationships between Vietnamese and Cambodian border provinces have been consolidated for the prosperity and development of both countries, said Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem in HCM City yesterday.

Addressing the 5th meeting on co-operation and development between border provinces of the two countries, Khiem said that the solidarity and friendship between Viet Nam and Cambodia was the driver for the fine development of border provinces.

"Co-operation between these provinces has progressed significantly in various fields including economics, trade, investment and national defence," said Khiem.

He called on Vietnamese and Cambodian authorities from border provinces, ministries and sectors to review their co-operation and analyse advantages and disadvantages, as well as opportunities and challenges, in order to come up with measures to make their co-operation sustainable and efficient.

"That’s the way to improve people’s living conditions, maintain border security and the common security of the two nations," said Khiem.

Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Sar Kheng spoke highly of the traditional friendship and comprehensive linkages between the two neighbours.

He took the occasion to express his sincere thanks to Viet Nam for helping Cambodia overthrow the Khmer Rouge regime in the past.

"At present Viet Nam has enabled and encouraged Vietnamese investors to go to Cambodia to invest in trade, tourism and other areas" said Sar Kheng.

"Investment, trade, infrastructure development are now top priorities of both nations," he said.

In 2008, trade with Cambodia was recorded to be over $1 billion in value, an increase of 40 per cent compared to the previous year and accounting for about 70 per cent of the import, export turnover between the two countries.

The damned Vietnamese-Cambodian ties that sent an innocent Khmer Krom monk to Hanoi's jail

Pha, Gia Khiem (L) chatting with Hun Sen (R) (Photo: VNA)

Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Vietnamese deputy prime minister in Cambodia to boost ties

Phnom Penh (dpa) - Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem spent his first full day of talks in Cambodia Tuesday as part of a three-day official visit aimed at boosting ties between the South-East Asian neighbours.

Khiem was scheduled to meet with Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong, Prime Minister Hun Sen and King Norodom Sihamoni during his visit, which focuses on strengthening bilateral trade and investment ties between the firm allies.

He arrived in Cambodia Monday at the invitation of Hor Namhong and is scheduled to leave Wednesday.

Khiem told Hor Namhong that trade and investment growth between the two neighbours continued to be positive and the two nations pledged continued cooperation through the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc and in the Greater Mekong Sub-region.

They also discussed strategies for the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), an informal dialogue process which currently involves 25 European Union member states and the European Commission as well as Brunei, Myanmar, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Laos, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, according to the ASEM website.

Pham Gia Khiem comes to Cambodia to deliver fresh Hanoi's new directives? Will the CPP dare raise Monk Tim Sakhorn's issue?

21/08/2007
Deputy Prime Minister visits Cambodia

VietNamNet Bridge - Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem arrived in Cambodia for official visit and promptly held talks with his counterpart Hor Namhong on August 20, where they discussed Cambodia’s marked political and economic development.

Deputy PM Khiem singled out the ward and communal elections that were held in April 2007 as evidence that the Cambodian National Assembly elections for 2008 would be a roaring success.

Both Foreign Ministry leaders said that trade and investment between the two neighbours continued to be a positive driving force in their greater diplomatic relationship and that celebrations of the 40 th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and Cambodia underscored the motto of “fine neighbours, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation and long-term stability.”

A consensus was also reached on the need to continue to work together in the forums of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle, the Ayeyawady – Chao Phraya –Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS), the Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam cooperation, the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

Also on August 20, the Deputy PM paid a courtesy visit to Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen who expressed his gratitude for the provision of human resources training, healthcare and infrastructure construction programmes to the impoverished nation.

Source: VNA

Are the ties between Cambodia and Vietnam so weak that Hanoi has to send its henchmen to come and boost them so frequently?

10/08/2007
Deputy PM Khiem to visit Cambodia

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem will pay an official visit to Cambodia and attend the ninth meeting of the Vietnam-Cambodia Joint Commission to be held in Phnom Penh, from August 20-22.

Speaking at a regular press briefing on August 9, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Le Dung said that the visit is aimed at boosting ties between the two neighbours.

An emphasis will also be placed on reviewing the implementation of cooperation agreements between the two countries, particularly in economy, trade, and investment, Dung said.

Source: VNA