Cambodia–Vietnam relations

Bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam were for long strained due to the Cambodian-Vietnamese War (1976 - 1990). Both nations have since taken steps to establish friendly ties.

Background

Cambodia shares a 1,137 kilometres long border with Vietnam in the east and southeast.cite web |title=Viet Nam-Cambodia trade set to increase 27% |url=http://www.vnbusinessnews.com/2008/01/viet-nam-cambodia-trade-set-to-increase.html |date=2008-01-18 |publisher=Vietnam Business News|accessdate=2008-06-11] For much of history, Cambodia was dominated by Vietnam's political power in the region and paid tribute to the rulers of Vietnam.cite web |title=Vietnam's relations with Cambodia and Laos |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+vn0110) |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=2008-06-11] In the 19th century, both states became part of French Indochina. Vietnamese and Cambodian nationalists collaborated to fight French forces during the First Indochina War (1945-54) in order to gain independence.cite web |title=Vietnam's relations with Cambodia and Laos |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+vn0110) |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=2008-06-11] During the Vietnam War, the Communist National Liberation Front guerrillas used Cambodia to launch attacks inside South Vietnam. With the defeat of U.S. forces and communist victories in Vietnam and Cambodia by 1975, both Vietnam and Cambodia as well as their northern neighbor Laos came under communist control.cite web |title=Vietnam's relations with Cambodia and Laos |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+vn0110) |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=2008-06-11]

Cambodian-Vietnamese War

Contrary to expectations in the West, the establishment of communist regimes did not bring Cambodia and Vietnam closer.cite web |title=Vietnam's relations with Cambodia and Laos |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+vn0110) |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=2008-06-11] Rivalry between the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Cambodian Khmer Rouge developed into open hostility when the latter blamed Vietnam for the Geneva Agreement of 1962, which did not secure a place for the Khmer Rouge in Cambodian politics.cite web |title=Vietnam's relations with Cambodia and Laos |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+vn0110) |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=2008-06-11] Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot adopted openly anti-Vietnamese stances, seeking to counter fears of Vietnamese domination, and demanded that Vietnam return territory it conquered from Cambodia centuries before.cite web |title=Vietnam's relations with Cambodia and Laos |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+vn0110) |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=2008-06-11] Skirmishes between the two countries broke out even as the Vietnamese Communists seized control of Saigon and Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital.cite web |title=Vietnam's relations with Cambodia and Laos |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+vn0110) |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=2008-06-11] After repeated Khmer Rouge attacks into Vietnamese territory and attempts to start talks failed, Vietnamese forces began a full-scale invasion in December 1978, overthrow Pol Pot's regime and captured most of Cambodia within a month.cite web |title=Vietnam's relations with Cambodia and Laos |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+vn0110) |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=2008-06-11] Vietnam's actions were condemned by the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as well as the People's Republic of China, which engaged in a brief war in 1979 with Vietnam, attempting to discourage Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia.cite web |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+vn0111) |title=Vietnam - China |accessdate=2008-06-03 |publisher=U.S. Library of Congress] cite book
last=Womack
first=Brantly
year=2006
title=China and Vietnam: Politics of Asymmetry
publisher=Cambridge University Press
isbn=0521853206
pages=26-28] cite web |title=Vietnam's relations with Cambodia and Laos |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+vn0110) |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=2008-06-11] Pro-Vietnamese Cambodian communists founded the People's Republic of Kampuchea and the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party, with Vietnamese support. Vietnam, Soviet Union and their allies reckognized the PRK as the legitimate government of Cambodia whereas Western countries and China continued to consider Democratic Kampuchea as the government of Cambodia. Vietnam began to withdraw troops steadily in the 1980s in completed the withdrawal by 1990.cite web |title=Vietnam's relations with Cambodia and Laos |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+vn0110) |publisher=Library of Congress |accessdate=2008-06-11]

Development of bilateral relations and commerce

Since the 1990s, relations between both nations have begun to improve. Both Vietnam and Cambodia are members of multilateral regional organizations such as ASEAN and the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation. Both nations have opened and developed cross-border trade and sought to relax visa regulations to that end.cite web |title=Viet Nam-Cambodia trade set to increase 27% |url=http://www.vnbusinessnews.com/2008/01/viet-nam-cambodia-trade-set-to-increase.html |date=2008-01-18 |publisher=Vietnam Business News|accessdate=2008-06-11] Both governments have set official targets of increasing bilateral trade by 27% to USD 2.3 billion by 2010 and to USD 6.5 billion by 2015.cite web |title=Cambodia, Viet Nam target $2.3 billion in bilateral trade by 2010 |url=http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=03BUS210108 |date=2008-01-21 |publisher=Vietnam News |accessdate=2008-06-11] cite web |title=Viet Nam-Cambodia trade set to increase 27% |url=http://www.vnbusinessnews.com/2008/01/viet-nam-cambodia-trade-set-to-increase.html |date=2008-01-18 |publisher=Vietnam Business News|accessdate=2008-06-11] Viet Nam exported USD 1.2 billion worth of goods to Cambodia in 2007. While Cambodia is only the 16th largest importer of Vietnamese goods, Vietnam is Cambodia's third-largest export market.cite web |title=Viet Nam-Cambodia trade set to increase 27% |url=http://www.vnbusinessnews.com/2008/01/viet-nam-cambodia-trade-set-to-increase.html |date=2008-01-18 |publisher=Vietnam Business News|accessdate=2008-06-11]

See also

* Degar refugees in Cambodia

References