Vietnam, Cambodia meet to discuss border demarcation

Deputy Foreign Minister Ho Xuan Son represented Vietnam, while Cambodia brought Var Kimhong, senior minister in charge of border affairs, to the table.

The two sides reviewed work on demarcation and border-marker placing between 2006 and today. The countries were able to identify boundaries along 920km of the border's total 1,137km.

They managed to identify 260 out of 314 spots for placing border markers (realising 84.1% of the set target). They erected 305 border markers out of the planned 371, 82.2% of the total. Sovereignty was defined for 104 islands and islets in the middle of rivers that serve as the bilateral border. Thirty-nine belong to Vietnam, while 65 belong to Cambodia.

The officials remained divided on how to deal with seven sections of the border line, including one that separates Vietnam's Gia Lai Province and Cambodia's Rattanakiri Province and another between Gia Lai and Dak Lak, and Trattanakiri and Mondulkiri. Son and Kimhong agreed to intensify their staffs' marker-placing work, as well as their own meetings.

They committed to finish the bilateral demarcation and border-marker talks by their deadline, the end of this year.

While exchanging candid ideas about the unfortunate incidents that have happened recently on the border, the two sides vowed to strengthen co-operation between public agencies and local authorities to deal with problems in the future.

In case of incidents, they agreed that they needed to act more promptly, inform each other about what is happening, and work more closely to prevent the incidents from spreading or hindering current demarcation work.

They also said they would work together to keep order in border areas and notify locals about the agreements and treaties they have signed.

The chairmens' next meeting is set for August in Vietnam.