Chinese premier aims to enrich China-Cambodia 'Diamond Hexagon' cooperation framework

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Thursday that China is ready to work with Cambodia to continuously enrich their "Diamond Hexagon" cooperation framework and deepen the building of the China-Cambodia community with a shared future in the new era for more results.

Li made the remarks during his meeting with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on the sidelines of the leaders' meetings on East Asia cooperation held in Vientiane.

Noting that China and Cambodia are iron-clad friends who reach out to each other and share the same future, Li stated that under the strategic guidance of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Cambodian leaders, the China-Cambodia community with a shared future has entered a new era of high quality, high level and high standards.

China will continue to firmly support Cambodia in pursuing a development path suited to its national conditions and in safeguarding national sovereignty and strategic independence, Li said, adding that China is willing to carry on the friendship from generation to generation, deepen strategic mutual trust, and promote mutually beneficial cooperation.

Li pointed out that China is ready to work with Cambodia to closely align their development needs, accelerate the synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and Cambodia's Pentagonal Strategy, and jointly implement the new version of the action plan for building the China-Cambodia community with a shared future.

Together with Cambodia, China is also willing to fully utilize the inter-governmental coordination committee mechanism of the two countries and create more high-quality projects for practical cooperation to achieve mutual benefits and win-win results, he said.

Li urged the two sides to accelerate the formulation of the cooperation plan for the "Industrial Development Corridor" and the preliminary work for the China-Cambodia railway, actively promote the construction of the "Fish and Rice Corridor," strengthen cooperation in infrastructure and energy, and push for more visible results.

China encourages more Chinese enterprises to invest in Cambodia and is willing to import more quality agricultural products from Cambodia. He added that China is ready to strengthen multilateral coordination with Cambodia to safeguard common strategic interests.

For his part, Hun Manet said that the Cambodia-China friendship was forged by the older generation of leaders from both countries.

In recent years, under the guidance of President Xi and Cambodian leaders, bilateral relations have entered a new era for building the Cambodia-China community with a shared future, he stated. He also thanked China for its long-term valuable support of Cambodia's economic and social development.

The Cambodian side firmly adopts a friendly policy toward China, adheres to the one-China principle, and believes that issues related to Taiwan, Xizang, Xinjiang and Hong Kong are all internal affairs of China, Hun Manet said.

Cambodia is ready to implement the Cambodia-China "Diamond Hexagon" cooperation framework, push forward cooperation on the "Industrial Development Corridor" and the "Fish and Rice Corridor," and continue to deepen collaboration in agriculture, energy, investment, infrastructure, people-to-people exchanges and tourism. Additionally, Cambodia aims to strengthen law enforcement and security cooperation, jointly crack down on transnational criminal activities such as online gambling and telecommunications fraud, and advance the building of the Cambodia-China community with a shared future, he added.