Jakarta (VNA) - Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son met with his Cambodian, Philippine and Malaysian counterparts on February 3 on the sidelines of the 32nd ASEAN Coordinating Council Meeting (ACC-32) in Jakarta, Indonesia.

During their meeting, FM Son and Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn were pleased with the fruitful developments of the bilateral relationship in recent times, and agreed to continue promoting the exchange of high-level visits via all channels, enhancing people-to-people exchange; maintaining and optimising the effectiveness of existing bilateral cooperation mechanisms; fostering economic connections; strengthening cooperation between localities, especially those that share borders; and exerting effort to speed up tourism recovery.


They also agreed to accelerate negotiations towards completing the remaining 16% of the land border demarcation and marker planting in order to build a common borderline of peace, friendship, cooperation and sustainable development between the two nations; and closely coordinate at regional and international forums as well as sub-regional mechanisms, and support each other's candidacy to multilateral organisations.

Sokhonn thanked Vietnam for supporting Cambodia to successfully fulfil its role of ASEAN Chair 2022.

He said the two sides should further strengthen economic-trade cooperation, focusing on important areas that are strengths of the two sides, while affirming Cambodia will continue to create favourable conditions for Vietnamese investors and businesses doing business in Cambodia.

FM Son suggested Sokhonn continue to pay attention to and support the Vietnamese community. 

Son took the occasion to invite the Cambodian official to pay an official visit to Vietnam and co-chair the 20th Joint Commission meeting in the first quarter of 2023.

In their meeting, FM Son and his Philippine counterpart Enrique A. Manalo emphasised the need to enhance mutual high-level visits and meetings, especially especially working closely to ensure the success of President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr’s visit to Vietnam in 2023.

They also agreed to urge relevant agencies of the two countries to soon resume bilateral cooperation mechanisms interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including the organisation of the 10th meeting of the Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation at the ministerial level.

Minister Manalo emphasised the need to effectively implement action programmes to boost the Vietnam-Philippines Strategic Partnership in the 2019-2024 period, towards the 10th anniversary of the strategic partnership, while noting that the two sides should expand cooperation in the fields of climate change, green growth, circular economy, digital transformation, and e-commerce.

FM Son suggested the two sides limit the imposition of trade barriers on each other's goods, and open the market for the two countries' key export products while fully tapping advantages brought by free trade agreements (FTAs) that both nations are joining, towards lifting their two-way trade to 10 billion USD.

Manalo highly appreciated Vietnam's commitment to maintaining rice exports to the Philippines and assisting the country in ensuring food security.

The two ministers also agreed to further expand cooperation in naval and coast guard, search and rescue, and response to oil spills at sea, as well as in marine environment protection and scientific research; and soon organise the 10th meeting of the joint working group on sea and ocean affairs.

They affirmed that they will continue to actively cooperate to solve issues related to fishermen and boats in the spirit of humanity and good friendship between the two countries.

The two sides agreed to strengthen coordination and actively support each other at international and regional organisations and forums, especially the United Nations and ASEAN; and promote solidarity and maintain ASEAN's central role in major issues related to security and interests of each country and the region.

Regarding the East Sea issue, the two sides reaffirmed the importance of ensuring peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and aviation in the East Sea as well as settling disputes on the basis of international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 UNCLOS); and closely coordinating with other ASEAN countries in effectively implementing the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and promoting the early conclusion of an effective and substantive Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).


Meeting with Malaysian FM Dato’s Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir, FM Son affirmed that Vietnam attaches importance to and wishes to further promote the  strategic partnership with Malaysia.

For his part, Kadir said Vietnam's economy has grown impressively even during the  COVID-19 pandemic, and Malaysia has also benefited from this in economic cooperation with Vietnam.

The two ministers agreed to continue promoting the implementation of cooperation programmes approved by the two countries' senior leaders within the framework of the action programme to strengthen the Strategic Partnership in 2021-2025, especially in economic, trade and investment cooperation, towards elevating two-way trade to 18 billion USD by 2025.

The two nations will also strengthen coordination and support each other at regional and international forums, especially ensuring ASEAN's common stance in the East Sea issue, ensuring the full implementation of the DOC, and soon reaching a practical and effective COC in accordance with international law, including the 1982 UNCLOS./.