[Vietnamization: Military] Vietnam Wants Support for Investors, Finding Remains

However, the meeting did not touch on issues pertaining to border demarcation and Vietnam’s construction of ponds and structures in areas designated no-man’s land, causing the Cambodian government to send more than 20 diplomatic notes in an effort to have the activities stopped. 

Vietnam Wants Support for Investors, Finding Remains

 Khmer Times | 7 October 2016

Vietnam’s Deputy Defense Minister Tran Don asked Cambodia on Wednesday to support Vietnamese investors in the Kingdom and help find the remains of Vietnamese soldiers who died in Cambodia in the 1980s.
 

The request from Vietnam came during a meeting with Defense Minister Tea Banh at the Defense Ministry.
 

Mr. Don said Vietnam and Cambodia were close friends and neighbors, adding that the trade volume between the two countries had increased to more than $3 billion last year.
 

To increase trade and investment further, he said, Vietnam needed support from the Cambodian people.
 

“I would like to request the minister to support Vietnamese investors in Cambodia and to help find the remains of Vietnamese veterans who sacrificed their lives in the past in Cambodia,” Mr. Don said.

The Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia in late December 1978 to oust Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge and left after a decade-long occupation in 1989, in which thousands of Vietnamese troops are believed to have died in action.
 

In July, a local news report said as many as 748 sets of remains belonging to Vietnamese soldiers who died in the Kingdom between 1979 and 1989 had been repatriated over the past two years.
 

Mr. Don added that Vietnam supported all of Cambodia’s major activities, especially the upcoming 2017 and 2018 elections, and would always be there to help.
 

Speaking at the meeting, General Banh said that Vietnamese investment was one reason for the Kingdom’s economic growth so there was no reason not to support Vietnamese investors here. However, he stressed that Cambodia does not support anyone working illegally in the country.
 

The two sides also pledged to preserve security along the border to strengthen relations between the two countries and improve the lives of the people living in the border region.
 

However, the meeting did not touch on issues pertaining to border demarcation and Vietnam’s construction of ponds and structures in areas designated no-man’s land, causing the Cambodian government to send more than 20 diplomatic notes in an effort to have the activities stopped.  
 

The two sides did not discuss the controversial South China Sea issue either.