PM Le Minh Hung’s Cambodia visit add fresh impetus to bilateral relations

Prime Minister Le Minh Hung will pay an official visit to Cambodia from October 9 to 10, 2026 at the invitation of his Cambodian counterpart Hun Manet. This marks his first overseas working visit in his capacity as head of the Vietnamese Government, demonstrating the priority placed on consolidating and further deepening the sound neighborly relations between Vietnam and Cambodia.

On this occasion, Vietnamese Ambassador to Cambodia Nguyen Minh Vu granted an interview to VOV reporters regarding the significance and expectations of the visit, as well as major orientations for bilateral cooperation in the coming period.

Ambassador Nguyen Minh Vu stated that the official visit to the Kingdom of Cambodia from October 9 to 10, is Prime Minister Le Minh Hung's first bilateral overseas visit in his capacity as Prime Minister, clearly showing Vietnam's regard and priority for consolidating and continuously deepening cooperative relations with Cambodia.

Amid the continued complex and unpredictable developments in the regional and international situation, the visit affirms Vietnam's determination to join Cambodia in cultivating an environment of peace, friendship, cooperation, and mutual development. This is also an opportunity for the Vietnamese Government chief to directly exchange views and further tighten ties and trust with Cambodia's top leaders.

Looking back from early 2026 to the present, both sides have exchanged high-level delegations, agreed on many important orientations, and reached strategic consensus. Notable examples include the State visit to Cambodia and participation in the high-level meeting of the two Parties and three parties by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and President To Lam (February 2026); Prime Minister Hun Manet's official visit to Vietnam and attendance at the 3rd Future of ASEAN Forum (June 2026); as well as Cambodian National Assembly President Khuon Sudary's official visit to Vietnam (July 2026).

During the upcoming talks and exchanges, the Ambassador believes that Prime Minister Le Minh Hung and Cambodian leaders will review, remove, and resolve existing bottlenecks and issues in various areas of cooperation between the two countries; concretize and actualize commitments and agreements reached; and exchange views to identify new, strategic orientations and priorities for bilateral relations in the coming period. Accompanying Prime Minister Le Minh Hung are leaders of many ministries, sectors, localities, and Vietnamese enterprises, and the two sides are expected to sign several cooperation documents.

The Ambassador expressed his expectation that PM Le Minh Hung's first visit to Cambodia will contribute to further consolidating political trust, enhancing cooperation in economics, culture, and education, and boosting people-to-people exchanges; while also creating fresh impetus for for bilateral cooperation to go deeper, more substantively, and more effectively, particularly in promoting economic, trade, and investment cooperation, better leveraging complementarities between the two economies, and working toward the goal of soon elevating bilateral trade turnover to US$20 billion in the coming period.

Assessing the trends of digital transformation and profound integration, Ambassador Nguyen Minh Vu stated that economic, trade, investment, and tourism cooperation are truly bright spots and key areas of cooperation in the overall Vietnam-Cambodia relationship.

Regarding trade, bilateral trade reached a record US$11.3 billion in 2025; in the first eight months of 2026, it reached approximately US$8.7 billion, an increase of 8.3% over the same period in 2025. Vietnam is currently Cambodia's third-largest trading partner, ranks second among countries exporting goods to Cambodia, and is also Cambodia's second-largest import market.

On investment, Vietnam currently has 223 investment projects in Cambodia with total registered capital of nearly US$3.4 billion, which not only operate effectively but also create jobs for tens of thousands of workers, making considerable contributions to the budget and social security in Cambodia.

On tourism, during the eight-month period, Vietnam was Cambodia's leading source of international visitors with over 585,000 arrivals, while Cambodian tourist arrivals in Vietnam throughout September hit approximately 630,000, an increase of 40.5%.

The Ambassador noted that PM Le Minh Hung's visit to Cambodia will further enhance increasingly close and complementary connectivity between the two economies, opening up opportunities to form a more comprehensive economic integration ecosystem between the two countries.

First is transport infrastructure connectivity, with the two countries agreeing on the connection point for the Ho Chi Minh City - Moc Bai - Bavet - Phnom Penh expressway (helping this vital route come into operation as planned by the end of 2027) and officially inaugurating the Khanh Binh - Chrey Thom international border gate pair on October 3, 2026, facilitating travel, commodity trade, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges.

In addition to road connectivity, both sides have also established air connectivity with multiple direct flights between major cities and tourist destinations, and promoted waterway transport connectivity. Furthermore, they prioritize developing energy infrastructure connectivity through connecting the power transmission grid and establishing mechanisms for trading petroleum, oil, and liquefied natural gas (LNG), to ensure development demands and energy security.

Not only connected in terms of hard infrastructure, the two countries are also increasingly closely linked in terms of policy and development strategy. Policy and institutional bottlenecks are being cooperatively resolved to create an open legal corridor and policy environment for stronger cooperation between the two countries.

The participation of many large Vietnamese enterprises accompanying the Prime Minister provides an opportunity for businesses from both sides to meet, seek cooperation opportunities, and put forward recommendations and proposals to the leaders of the two countries to remove difficulties and obstacles, thus creating favorable mechanisms and policies for businesses to step up investment and business operations.

In addition, the rapid development of global science and technology is prompting Vietnam and Cambodia to step up research investments to timely meet the development trends of the times, opening up new opportunities for increasingly closer ties between the two countries.

The resolutions and documents of the 14th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam place science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation at the center of the economic growth model. The Cambodian Government also regards science, technology, and innovation as important drivers for national development and places them as one of the priorities of its Pentagonal Strategy - Phase I, creating natural opportunities for connectivity between the two countries in this field.

As a country with prior advantages and experience, the Ambassador believes that Vietnamese enterprises, including Mefone, invested by the Viettel Group in Cambodia), have every opportunity to support, spur development, and serve as a bridge linking cooperation in cross-border e-commerce, digital transformation, and scientific and technological cooperation between Vietnam and Cambodia.

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