Creating new momentum and impetus for Vietnam-Cambodia cooperation to continue to deepen, become more substantive, and more effective.

Prime Minister Le Minh Hung presided over the welcoming ceremony for Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei Hun Manet, on his official visit to Vietnam and participation in the Third ASEAN Future Forum, on June 8. (Source: VGP)

This was the assessment of the Vietnamese Ambassador to Cambodia, Nguyen Minh Vu, in an interview with the World and Vietnam Newspaper regarding the official visit of Prime Minister Le Minh Hung to Cambodia (October 9-10), at the invitation of Prime Minister Hun Manet.

Ambassador, could you please share the objectives, significance, and expectations of this visit?

The official visit to the Kingdom of Cambodia from October 9-10 was part of Prime Minister Le Minh Hung's first bilateral overseas visit, clearly demonstrating Vietnam's utmost importance and highest priority in strengthening and continuously deepening its relationship with Cambodia.

Against the backdrop of a highly complex and unpredictable international and regional situation, this visit affirms Vietnam's determination to work with Cambodia to foster an environment of peace, friendship, cooperation, and shared development in the region, as well as to promote all aspects of cooperation between the two countries.

The visit also provided an opportunity to strengthen trust, close ties, and mutual understanding between Prime Minister Le Minh Hung and the highest-ranking leaders of Cambodia.

Since the beginning of 2026, the two sides have exchanged delegations between high-level leaders, agreed on many important directions, and reached strategically significant consensuses, especially the State visit to Cambodia and participation in the 2-party and 3-party summit by General Secretary To Lam (February 2026), and the official visit to Vietnam, participation and speech at the 3rd ASEAN Future Forum by Prime Minister Hun Manet (June 2026), as well as the official visit to Vietnam by Speaker of the National Assembly Khuon Sudary (July 2026).

During the talks and exchanges in the upcoming visit, I believe that Prime Minister Le Minh Hung and Cambodian leaders will review, address, and resolve existing issues and obstacles in the areas of cooperation between the two countries; concretize and realize the commitments and agreements already reached; and exchange views on and identify new strategic directions and priorities for bilateral relations in the coming period.

Many leaders from Vietnamese ministries, departments, localities, and businesses will accompany Prime Minister Le Minh Hung. The two sides are expected to sign several cooperation documents.

I expect that Prime Minister Le Minh Hung's first visit to Cambodia will not only contribute to further strengthening political trust, enhancing economic, cultural, and educational cooperation, and promoting people-to-people exchanges, but also create new momentum and impetus for the bilateral relationship to continue to deepen, become more substantive and effective, especially in promoting economic, trade, and investment cooperation, better leveraging the complementarity between the two economies, and aiming to soon increase bilateral trade to 20 billion USD in the near future.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Cambodia Nguyen Minh Vu. (Source: Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia)

How does the Ambassador view the potential for forming a "connected ecosystem" between Vietnam and Cambodia in the coming period, encompassing not only trade, investment, and transportation infrastructure, but also logistics, cross-border e-commerce, digital transformation, science and technology, and linkages between localities and businesses? What specific impetus could the Prime Minister's visit provide for this process?

Economic, trade, investment, and tourism cooperation are truly bright spots and important areas of collaboration in the overall Vietnam-Cambodia relationship.

In terms of trade, bilateral trade turnover is projected to reach a record high of US$11.3 billion in 2025; and approximately US$8.7 billion in the first eight months of 2026, an increase of 8.3% compared to the same period in 2025.

Vietnam is currently Cambodia's third largest trading partner, ranking second among countries exporting goods to Cambodia and also being the second largest importer of Cambodian goods. Vietnam currently has 223 investment projects in Cambodia, with a total registered capital of nearly US$3.4 billion. These projects are not only operating effectively but also creating jobs for tens of thousands of workers, making significant contributions to the national budget, and contributing practically to social welfare in Cambodia.

In terms of tourism, in the first eight months of 2026, Vietnam was Cambodia's leading source of international tourists with over 585,000 visitors. Meanwhile, Cambodian tourists to Vietnam in the first nine months reached approximately 630,000, an increase of 40.5%, making it Vietnam's sixth largest source market. These figures reflect the increasingly close ties and exchanges between the people of Vietnam and Cambodia.

I believe that Prime Minister Le Minh Hung's visit to Cambodia will not only further strengthen the increasingly close and complementary connections between the two economies, but also open up opportunities to form a more comprehensive economic ecosystem between Vietnam and Cambodia.

First and foremost, there is the connection in terms of transportation infrastructure, with both sides having agreed on the connection point for the Ho Chi Minh City-Moc Bai-Bavet-Phnom Penh expressway. This will help bring this vital route into operation as planned by the end of 2027, further facilitating travel, trade, tourism, and promoting people-to-people exchanges.

In addition to road connections, the two sides have also established air connections with numerous direct flights between major cities and tourist destinations in both countries; and promoted water transport connections, including river transport and sea routes.

In addition, both sides prioritize developing energy infrastructure connectivity through connecting electricity transmission systems, establishing mechanisms for trading gasoline, diesel, liquefied natural gas (LNG), etc., to ensure the development needs and energy security of both countries.

The 2026 Business Dialogue, held on April 22nd, was organized by the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia in collaboration with the Vietnam-Cambodia Business Association (VCBA), and chaired by the Vietnamese Ambassador to Cambodia, Nguyen Minh Vu. (Source: Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia)

Beyond physical infrastructure connections, the two countries are also increasingly closely linked in terms of policy and development strategies. Policy and institutional bottlenecks are being addressed collaboratively, creating a more favorable legal and policy framework for stronger cooperation between the two countries. Both sides are also discussing the formation of new economic cooperation mechanisms to further promote economic, trade, and investment relations.

Many large Vietnamese businesses accompanied Prime Minister Le Minh Hung on this visit, not only as an opportunity for businesses from both sides to meet and seek cooperation opportunities, but also to make recommendations and proposals to the leaders of the two countries to remove difficulties and obstacles, and create favorable mechanisms and policies for businesses to boost investment and business between the two countries.

Furthermore, the rapid development of global science and technology is prompting Vietnam and Cambodia to increase investment in research to keep pace with the trends of the times, while also opening up new opportunities for closer ties between the two countries. Resolutions and documents of the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam have placed science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation at the center of the economic growth model.

The Cambodian government also views science and technology and innovation as a crucial driver for the country's development and places it as one of the priorities of the first phase of the Pentagon Strategy. This has created, is creating, and will continue to create natural opportunities for connection between the two countries in this field, contributing to the formation of a comprehensive and interconnected ecosystem between the two nations.

As a country with advantages and prior experience, I believe that Vietnamese businesses, including Mefone (an investment of Viettel Group in Cambodia), have every opportunity to support and promote development, and act as a bridge connecting cross-border e-commerce cooperation, digital transformation, and science and technology cooperation between Vietnam and Cambodia.

I believe that Prime Minister Le Minh Hung's official visit to Cambodia will be a significant milestone in transforming political trust between the two countries into concrete strategies, commitments, and actions, creating the foundations to promote an increasingly strong and comprehensive economic ecosystem between Vietnam and Cambodia.

Ambassador, in recent times, people-to-people diplomacy has always been given special attention by the leaders and people of both countries. On this occasion, could you please share your assessment of the role of the younger generation (especially youth, the next generation of officials, and the training of high-quality human resources…) in continuing, preserving, and nurturing the traditional friendship between Vietnam and Cambodia so that it continues to flourish? What plans does the Embassy have for the future to enhance people-to-people exchanges, particularly to raise awareness among the younger generation about bilateral friendship?

People-to-people diplomacy has always been identified as a solid social foundation, a natural and enduring bond in the good neighborly relations, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation, and long-term sustainability between Vietnam and Cambodia.

Over the past period, both sides have carried out many activities to promote people-to-people exchanges, such as coordinating efforts to effectively disseminate information and raise awareness among the people of both countries about the traditional friendship, close ties, and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries; coordinating the organization and participation in cultural events such as the Vietnam Culture Week in Cambodia (May 2026) and the 2nd World Culture Festival in Hanoi (October 1-4, 2026); and promoting exchange programs between young parliamentarians, friendship associations, youth associations of the two countries, and research institutes.

In addition, ministries, departments, and localities, especially border localities and sister units, regularly organize activities to strengthen exchanges and ties between the governments, people, and businesses of both sides.

In the context of both countries entering a pivotal stage of development and a new era, I particularly appreciate the crucial role of the younger generation, including youth, young intellectuals, and the next generation of leaders, who hold a central position in continuing the flow of Vietnam-Cambodia friendship. These are the people who will continue the mission of upholding traditions and passing on historical memories, by cherishing, preserving, and writing the beautiful chapters of bilateral relations through a spirit of solidarity, sharing, understanding, and mutual respect.

In this context, the younger generation of officials – the next generation – is the core force directly coordinating, implementing, and concretizing agreements and commitments between the high-level leaders of the two countries, ensuring that coordination between the two sides remains smooth, effective, and timely in the face of new challenges.

Opening ceremony of the Vietnam Culture Week in Cambodia 2026, May 26th. (Source: Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia)

Furthermore, thousands of Cambodian students and scholars trained in Vietnam, and vice versa, not only acquire specialized knowledge to serve their country's development but also act as natural "ambassadors of friendship," fostering close ties in language, culture, and people between the two countries. In addition, the youth of both countries are the most agile and leading force in entrepreneurship, innovation, digital transformation, and green economic development, opening up new avenues for cooperation beyond traditional frameworks and bringing bilateral relations up to par with regional and global development.

In the coming period, people-to-people exchanges will continue to be one of the important areas contributing to strengthening the social foundation and enhancing the long-term ties between the two countries. To further cultivate awareness and promote people-to-people exchanges, especially among young people, the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia will focus on implementing the following key directions and activities:

Firstly, closely coordinate with relevant agencies of both countries to innovate methods of educating and promoting historical traditions to young people. This includes strengthening the application of digital media platforms and social networks to spread historical stories, examples of solidarity and close ties, and achievements of cooperation between the two countries in a relatable and engaging way, while also organizing competitions to learn about history and culture for young people of both countries.

Secondly , coordinate with youth agencies of both countries to promote youth exchange programs, organize online and in-person youth forums, and create a platform for young people from both countries to openly exchange and share cooperative initiatives.

Thirdly , focus on strengthening the network of students and alumni from both countries. This includes providing practical support to Vietnamese students studying in Cambodia, as well as building and promoting the role of Cambodian alumni associations who studied in Vietnam – those who are currently holding or will hold important positions in Cambodian society – so that they continue to spread positive sentiments about Vietnam and its people.

Fourth , strengthen the connection between the younger generation and the business community by encouraging Vietnamese businesses in Cambodia to provide scholarships, internships, and job opportunities for Cambodian youth and students; and create conditions for young people from both sides to participate in technology and e-commerce startup projects and volunteer activities for the community in border areas.

The traditional friendship between Vietnam and Cambodia is an invaluable asset for both nations. With the faith, knowledge, and enthusiasm of youth, I deeply believe that the next generation of both countries will continue to strengthen this special relationship, making it more fruitful, for the peace, stability, and prosperous development of both nations.

Thank you very much, Ambassador!