Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Le Hai Binh. Photo: VNA

(VOVworld) - Vietnam has strictly abided by agreements with Cambodia on managing their shared border during the process of demarcation and border marker planting, said Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Le Hai Binh on Thursday. Binh made the statement in response to reporters’ questions about on Cambodia’s announcement that Vietnam and Cambodia have agreed to postpone construction activities in a number of border areas. Binh said diplomatic notes to Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and agencies for border affairs, as well as a meeting of the two chairmen of the Joint Committee on Border Demarcation and Marker Planting from July 6-9, clearly confirmed that all Vietnamese construction projects in border areas in recent years are in territory that is under Vietnam’s management.

Point 8 of the Vietnam-Cambodia joint press communiqué on January 17, 1995, states that the two sides agree that while waiting for the settlement of differences on border lines, they will maintain current management, not change or move border markers, educate the community and prevent them from tilling the land, and work together for the maintenance of border security and order, the spokesperson noted. He added that in order to show Vietnam's goodwill and create favorable conditions for the demarcation and marker planting in this important period, a diplomatic note dated July 6, 2015, to Cambodia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, as well as a Joint Committee on Border Demarcation and Marker Planting meeting, proposed that Cambodia join a commitment not to construct works within 100 meters of the real management line in areas where demarcation and marker planting is taking place, or where discussions have not finished, in line with the memorandum of understanding on land border adjustment signed on April 23, 2011. “Unfortunately, the Cambodian side did not respond to the goodwill proposal of Vietnam,” the spokesperson stated.