(VOVworld) - A meeting will be held on Sunday to mark the 45^th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Vietnam and Cambodia on June 24^th. Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh said that the celebrations demonstrate both countries’ determination to build relationship of good neighborliness, traditional friendship, and comprehensive, sustainable and lasting cooperation.

The most prominent achievement over the past 45 years is that people from both countries have been united, worked with each other and even sacrificed for national libration. Bilateral ties have been constantly consolidated and developed, benefiting the two peoples. Vietnam and Cambodia are nurturing relationship of good neighborliness, traditional friendship, and comprehensive, sustainable and lasting cooperation. Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh told VOV: “This is an opportunity for both countries to recall their glorious historical tradition and inform the young generation about our close relationship. It‘s also an occasion to pay tribute to those who laid down their lives for peace in both countries. Central and local agencies from both sides review their cooperation and learn experiences to boost effective cooperation between the two countries.”

Diverse activities are underway in both countries to celebrate the event according Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh: “On June 24^th Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Cambodian Prime Minister Hunsen will co-host a ceremony to inaugurate border marker 314, the last one on land border between the two countries in Vietnam’s Kien Giang province and Cambodia’s Kam Pot province. Then both leaders will co-chair the 3^rd meeting on bilateral investment cooperation in Kien Giang.”

Minister Minh said practical activities marking the 2012 Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship year will help raise awareness of the two peoples, especially young people about the importance of bilateral ties and their tradition of solidarity, friendship and cooperation, which will create momentum for further economic benefits.

On the occasion of the 45^th anniversary of Vietnam and Cambodia diplomatic ties and the 2012 Friendship Year, leaders from both countries have exchanged messages of congratulation. Vietnamese top leaders expressed their pleasure over the fine development of the friendly relation and comprehensive cooperation. They thanked the Cambodian leaders and people for their valuable assistance for Vietnam’s past struggles for national liberation and today’s national construction.

The Cambodian top leaders said they consider the Cambodia-Vietnam relationship as invaluable asset of the two peoples. They expressed deep gratitude for the assistance by Vietnamese government and people, who helped save the Cambodian from the Pol Pot genocidal regime in 1979. The leaders also congratulated major achievements of the Vietnamese people.