Cambodian scholar highlights Vietnam - Cambodia friendship

The August 28 article was written by Uch Leang, deputy head of the Department of Asian, African and Middle Eastern Studies under the RAC’s Institute of International Relations, ahead of Vietnam’s 77th National Day (September 2).

The two countries are holding the Friendship Year 2022 and marking the 55th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.

In the writing, Uch Leang noted the historical context of bilateral relations, from the end of the Second World War in 1945, the French colonialists sending troops to re-occupy Indochina, the globe-shaking victory of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign that forced the French Government to return complete independence to Vietnam and recognise the independence of Cambodia and Laos, to Vietnam’s assistance for Cambodia’s patriotic force to topple the Pol Pot genocidal regime in 1979.

He said in that context, Cambodia and Vietnam maintained and unceasingly promoted their ties and officially set up the diplomatic relationship on June 24, 1967.

Since then, the two countries’ destinies have become intertwined, especially in the 1950s and 1970s, when Cambodia supported Vietnam’s struggle to gain national reunification and Vietnam assisted the Cambodian people to escape from the genocidal regime.
 

The article went on to say that bilateral relations have been developing over the last more than 50 years. In 2005, Cambodia and Vietnam identified the development orientation for their ties in the new context, which is “good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, and comprehensive, sustainable and long term cooperation”.

Over the last couple of years, they have offered both material and spiritual support for each other in the fight against COVID-19 so as to bring the pandemic under control and resume bilateral cooperation activities, according to the scholar.

This year, Cambodia is holding the rotational chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the third time.

Like Cambodia’s support for Vietnam’s previous ASEAN Chairmanship, Vietnam also consistently backs Cambodia’s endeavours to maintain the bloc’s centrality, mobilise efforts within the bloc and from non-ASEAN partners, and enhance ASEAN’s solidarity and adaptability to achieve targets of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025, he went on.

Uch Leang held that the two countries’ sound friendship and neighbourliness are integral relations, of which economic partnerships play an important role in helping with political ties./.