This is Prime Minister Le Minh Hung’s first official visit to Laos and Cambodia, affirming the high regard and priority that the Party, State, and Government of Viet Nam attach to the two neighbouring countries. The visit will contribute to further deepening the great friendship, special solidarity, comprehensive cooperation, and strategic linkage between Viet Nam and Laos, as well as the good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation, and long-term sustainability between Viet Nam and Cambodia.
The special relationship between Viet Nam and Laos has been painstakingly nurtured by generations of leaders and people of the two countries, becoming a model, sincere, pure, and rare relationship in international relations. That relationship has been strengthened, developed, and become increasingly close, growing into one of great friendship, special solidarity, comprehensive cooperation, and extensive strategic linkage.
Viet Nam always attaches importance to and gives top priority to its relations with Laos. It has always accompanied, supported and stood ready to share with Laos on its path of national development, and is determined to work with Laos to preserve, nurture, and make bilateral relations increasingly effective and enduring. The close bond, high level of trust, and close coordination between senior leaders of the two countries provide a firm political foundation for the two sides to continue consolidating and elevating political relations.
Viet Nam and Laos have focused on concretising the substance of strategic linkage across many fields, closely coordinating and effectively implementing the outcomes of the high-level meeting between the two Politburos in 2026, the meeting among the heads of the three parties, the 48th meeting of the Viet Nam-Laos Intergovernmental Committee, and the results of visits by senior leaders of the two countries. Joint statements, high-level agreements, and cooperation plans between the two governments have been implemented seriously, with clear focus and priorities.
On the foundation of special political trust, Viet Nam and Laos have not only continued to accompany, support, and share with each other on the path of development, but they have also gradually built increasingly substantive complementarity and intertwined interests. Economic, trade, and investment cooperation has become an increasingly important pillar, which has been prioritised and promoted towards stronger strategic linkage, with a focus on connecting transport infrastructure, energy, telecommunications, and logistics, as well as linking the two economies, thereby helping create development momentum for each country.
Cooperation in education and training, human resource development, science and technology, culture, people-to-people exchanges, and cooperation between localities has also continued to receive strong attention.
Against the backdrop of the long-standing historical ties between Viet Nam and Cambodia, solidarity between the two parties and the two countries is a precious asset that should be nurtured, preserved, and developed. Political and diplomatic relations have always served as the core in guiding the overall relationship between the two countries. The two sides have regularly maintained contacts and exchanges of delegations at high and other levels, while coordinating to organise bilateral cooperation mechanisms across all channels.
Political trust has been continuously strengthened, notably through Party General Secretary To Lam’s visit to Cambodia and his co-chairing of the two-party and three-party meetings in February 2026; Prime Minister Hun Manet’s official visit to Viet Nam, during which he attended and addressed the third ASEAN Future Forum in June 2026; and National Assembly President Samdech Khuon Sudary’s official visit to Viet Nam in July 2026.
The good neighbourliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation, and long-term sustainability between Viet Nam and Cambodia have increasingly developed in greater depth and substance. Defence and security cooperation has affirmed its role as a pillar. The two sides have coordinated closely and effectively implemented tasks to maintain political stability, ensure national defence and security, and safeguard social order and safety in each country.
Trade, investment and tourism cooperation has created momentum for breakthroughs, with bilateral trade recording strong growth, reaching nearly 8.7 billion USD in the first eight months of 2026 alone, up 8.3% compared with the same period in 2025. Cooperation in education, culture, society, and people-to-people diplomacy has become increasingly widespread.
Prime Minister Le Minh Hung’s official visits to Laos and Cambodia are a concrete step in implementing the foreign policy line of the 14th National Party Congress and the strategic resolutions of the Politburo, which attach high priority to relations with the two neighbouring countries. The visits affirm Viet Nam’s consistent policy of always valuing and wishing to continuously consolidate and develop friendship and cooperation with Laos and Cambodia.
This is an opportunity for the head of the Vietnamese Government and the leaders of Laos and Cambodia to discuss measures to accelerate the translation of commitments, agreements, and high-level common perceptions into substantive results, improve the effectiveness of bilateral cooperation mechanisms, and create new momentum for economic, trade, and investment cooperation and infrastructure connectivity. Viet Nam is aiming to raise two-way trade with Laos up to 10 billion USD and with Cambodia up to 20 billion USD.
The visits will also promote cooperation in education and training, human resource development, science and technology, culture, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges. Vietnamese leaders, together with leaders of Laos and Cambodia, will also exchange and share visions and orientations on regional and international issues of shared concern, while strengthening coordination within ASEAN, the United Nations and other multilateral mechanisms.
With special significance, the visits demonstrate the proactive and active role of the head of the Vietnamese Government in promoting and deepening traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation with the two neighbouring countries. They also send a clear message about Viet Nam’s foreign policy focuses and priorities in the new tenure.
As 2027 will mark important milestones, including the 65th anniversary of Viet Nam-Laos diplomatic relations and the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, as well as the 60th anniversary of Viet Nam-Cambodia diplomatic relations, the visits are expected to help nurture friendship and close bonds between the peoples of Viet Nam and those of Laos and Cambodia. They will create new impetus for cooperation between Viet Nam and the two neighbouring countries in the new stage, making these relations increasingly substantive and effective, and contributing to peace, stability, cooperation, and development in the region.
