1. At the invitation of Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei HUN Manet, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, His Excellency Sonexay SIPHANDONE, Prime Minister of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), paid an Official Visit to the Kingdom of Cambodia from 4th to 5th December 2024. His Excellency Sonexay SIPHANDONE was accompanied by His Excellency Thongsavanh PHOMVIHANE, Foreign Minister, and other high-ranking officials.
2. His Excellency Sonexay SIPHANDONE laid wreaths at the Independence Monument and paid homage in memory of the great heroes and heroines of Cambodia. He also paid tribute and respect at the Royal Memorial of His Majesty Preah Bat Samdech Preah NORODOM SIHANOUK, “PREAH BOROM RATANAK KAUDH”, the Late King-Father of Cambodia.
3. During the visit, His Excellency Sonexay SIPHANDONE was granted a Royal audience with His Majesty Preah Bat Samdech Preah Boromneath NORODOM SIHAMONI, King of Cambodia, and paid separate courtesy calls on Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo HUN Sen, President of the Senate, and Samdech Moha Rathsapheathika Thipadei Khoun Sudary, President of the National Assembly. His Excellency Sonexay SIPHANDONE attended an official dinner hosted in his honour by Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei HUN Manet, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
4. His Excellency Sonexay SIPHANDONE had a bilateral meeting with Samdech Moha Borvor Thipadei HUN Manet in the spirit of traditional friendship, good neighborliness, fraternal solidarity, and mutual understanding and trust. The two leaders briefed each other on the current development of each respective country and exchanged in-depth views on bilateral cooperation across the board, as well as cooperation in regional and international fora. Recalling his first Official Visit to the Lao PDR in March 2024, Samdech Thipadei Prime Minister welcomed the reciprocal visit by Prime Minister Sonexay SIPHANDONE as an important visit and a great impetus driving the existing excellent relations between the two friendly countries to new heights.
5. Samdech Thipadei Prime Minister renewed his sincere congratulations to the Government and the people of Lao PDR on their 49th anniversary of the National Day on 2 December 2024, as well as expressed his deep appreciation for His Excellency Sonexay SIPHANDONE’s warmest congratulatory message on the occasion of the 71st anniversary of the Independence Day of Cambodia, on 9 November 2024. Samdech Thipadei Prime Minister highly commended the achievements made by the Government of the Lao PDR in promoting sustainable development and social welfare of Laotian people, and extended his best wishes for the great success of the 12th Party Congress of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party, scheduled for 2026.
6. His Excellency Sonexay SIPHANDONE also lauded the continued success of the Royal Government of Cambodia in maintaining peace and stability, achieving steady economic growth and improving the quality of life of the Cambodian people under the Royal guidance of His Majesty Preah Bat Samdech Preah Boromneath NORODOM SIHAMONI, and the right development path adopted by the Royal Government of Cambodia under the leadership of Samdech Thipadei Prime Minister HUN Manet. In addition, he strongly believed that through implementation of its “Pentagonal Strategy-Phase I”, the Royal Government of Cambodia would achieve the Kingdom’s vision of becoming a high-income country by 2050.
7. On political cooperation, the two Prime Ministers underscored the importance of holding the regular exchange of high-level visits and all-level interactions between the two countries to enhance trust and to strengthen close cooperation in order to jointly address issues in timely and effective manner and to further promote coordination on regional and international issues of mutual interests. They also agreed to enhance inter-parliamentary engagements through exchange of visits. Both sides agreed that the 15th Meeting of the Joint Commission for Bilateral Cooperation (15th JCBC) between Cambodia and Lao PDR should commence at the earliest opportunity in 2025.
8. On defence and security, the two Prime Ministers applauded all relevant institutions and authorities of the two countries for their close coordination and diligence in addressing issues such as online scams, drug/human trafficking, and other transnational crimes and encouraged them to sustain further cooperation and to timely and regularly share information to effectively address the above issues. The two leaders agreed to maintain the “Annual Bilateral Cooperation Mechanisms” between the Ministry of Interior of Cambodia and the Ministry of Public Security of Lao PDR in order to exchange views and to further enhance and strengthen bilateral cooperation. The two leaders also shared the strong commitment not allowing any hostile forces to use the territory of one country to do harm to the security and stability of the other or to interfere in its internal affairs.
9. The leaders of the two countries congratulated and highly commended on the Cambodia’s success in organizing and hosting the Cambodia-Laos-Viet Nam Trilateral Defence Ministers’ Meeting and hosting the Trilateral Joint Training Exercise on disaster relief operations, which was to promote practical cooperation among the Armed Forces, local authorities and people of the three countries to build a border of peace, friendship, stability, cooperation, development and to highlight the solidarity, friendship, and mutual assistance between the Governments, Armed Forces and People of the three countries.
10. The two Prime Ministers reiterate their commitment to encourage the competent authorities of the two countries to study the possibility of the establishment of a new border checkpoint between Ratanakiri province and Attapeu province to facilitate cross-border trade, tourism, transportation, and people connectivity between the two countries.
11. Both sides highly valued the signing of the Treaty on the Delimitation of the State Border between the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic on 13 February 2023 in Vientiane, as well as the exchange of instruments of ratification of the Treaty on Delimitation of the State Border and the signing of the Agreed Minutes on the exchange of instruments for the effective implementation of the above-mentioned treaty during the official visit of Samdech Thipadei Prime Minister to Lao PDR on 25th-26th March 2024. They also highly valued the results of the boundary demarcation and abornement about 86% of the total borderline, equivalent to 540 kilometers and committed to expedite the settlement of the remaining border segments as soon as possible in order to build a common border of peace, friendship, development and cooperation between the two countries.
12. The two Prime Ministers also expressed their satisfaction on the consensus of the two meetings of the 9th Joint Technical Boundary Sub-Commissions (JTSC) and the 7th Joint Boundary Commission (JBC), on 27th-28th June 2024 regarding the settlement of the unresolved border segments as well as expediting the demarcation and abornement works on the terrain. They also commended the outcomes of the 4th Meeting of the Cambodian-Lao and the Lao-Cambodian Operational Group, and the 10th Meeting of Cambodian-Lao and the Lao-Cambodian Joint Technical Boundary Sub-Commission (JTSC) on 6th-7th November 2024 in Siem Reap Province, the Kingdom of Cambodia.
13. The two Prime Ministers encouraged the ministries and authorities concerned of both sides to expedite site selection for building bridge crossing the Tonle Ropou (Preah Vihear Province) – Selampao (Champasak Province) river as soon as possible. They strongly believed that the bridge will contribute to facilitating transportation, trade, investment, tourism and people to people connectivity between the two countries, as well as the connectivity in the Greater Mekong Subregion.
14. The two Prime Ministers welcomed the signing of the Agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic for the Elimination of Double Taxation with respect to Taxes on Income and the Prevention of Tax Evasion and Avoidance, and expressed optimism that this Agreement would be a propeller for trade expansion between the two countries. Both leaders also welcomed the convening of the 2nd Joint Trade Committee (JTC) Meeting between Cambodia and Lao PDR in the first quarter of 2025 in Lao PDR and holding of the Cambodia-Lao PDR business and investment forum on the sidelines or back-to-back with the 2nd JTC to further enhance trade, business and investment between the two countries.
15. The two Prime Ministers agreed to explore the possibilities of increasing direct flights between the two countries in order to facilitate business and tourism exchanges, and people to people linkage. They also concurred to encourage self-driving tour between Lao PDR-Cambodia and Cambodia-Lao PDR, and strengthen joint tourism cooperation between Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Viet Nam under the theme “Three Countries, One Destination” to promote connectivity and tourist flow to the three countries.
16. In the energy cooperation, Samdech Thipadei Prime Minister expressed appreciation for the Laos side’s support and supply of electricity to Cambodia to enhance its energy security. The two leaders shared desire to actively and effectively implement all Agreements and Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) on energy, especially the 6 recent MoUs and Agreements on energy purchase and green energy to contribute to promoting energy security between the two countries and across the ASEAN region, signed during and after Samdech Thipadei Prime Minister’s official visit to Lao PDR in March 2024.
17. To further strengthen collaboration in education, the two leaders took note of the intention of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of Cambodia and the Ministry of Education and Sports of the Lao PDR to explore the possibility of renewing the Agreement on Cooperation in Education to replace the expired Agreement which was signed in 2018.
18. The two leaders emphasized the importance of close cooperation and effective implementation of the MoU on Cooperation in the Fields of Post, Telecommunications, Information and Communications Technology and Digital Government between the Ministry of Technology and Communications of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of the Kingdom of Cambodia, signed on 11 March 2024, to further enhance the development of these fields and advance digital transformation.
19. Samdech Thipadei Prime Minister congratulated the Lao PDR for the successful chairmanship of the 44th-45th ASEAN Summits and Related Summits under the theme “ASEAN: Enhancing Connectivity and Resilience” on 9th-11th October 2024 in Vientiane, Lao PDR, and the 10th ACMECS Summit under the theme "Towards Seamless Connectivity for the Mekong Sub-regional Integration" on 6-7 November 2024 in Kunming, China. His Excellency Sonexay SIPHANDONE expressed high appreciation to Cambodia’s full support for the Lao chairmanship of ASEAN in 2024.
20. Apart from bilateral relations, the two Prime Ministers expressed commitment to strengthening cooperation and enhancing mutual support in various regional and international fora, including ASEAN, Mekong Sub-regional mechanisms, ACMECS, CLMV and the United Nations, in order to contribute to peace, security, harmony, sustainable development of the two nations.
21. The two Prime Ministers also had an in-depth deliberation on other matters including public works and transport, banking, public health, labour, environment and culture. They shared the same view that relevant authorities and institution of both sides should fully implemented the Action Plan (2023-2027) signed on 13 February 2023 in order to further strengthen and advance the Comprehensive and Long-Lasting Strategic Partnership reached in 2019.
22. Following conclusion of their cordial discussion, the two Prime Ministers witnessed the signing of three documents, namely:
(1). Agreement between the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic for the Elimination of Double Taxation with respect to Taxes on Income and the Prevention of Tax Evasion and Avoidance,
(2). Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic on Cooperation in the field of Culture and Arts for the Years of 2025-2027, and (3). Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Lao People's Democratic Republic on cooperation in the field of agriculture.
23. His Excellency Sonexay SIPHANDONE expressed his deep appreciation to Samdech Thipadei Prime Minister and the people of Cambodia for the warm welcome and hospitality extended to him and the accompanying delegation during their stay in Phnom Penh.
Phnom Penh, 05 December 2024.