Posts Tagged ‘Vietnam’
Hun Sen stresses need to exchange territory with YUON…repay for Yuon invasion
10/8/2012 PHNOM PENH (Cambodia Herald) – Prime Minister Hun Sen told the National Assembly Thursday that the exchange of territories between Cambodia and Vietnam would facilitate people\’s ties to the land.
He said Cambodia had 916.7 hectares of Vietnamese territory while Vietnam had 2,160.6 hectares of Cambodian territory.
If this is acknowledged by both countries, Hun Sen said that Vietnam would return 1,234.9 hectares of land to Cambodia.
He noted that territory had already been exchanged by China and Vietnam, France and Belgium, Belgium and the Netherlands and the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
ASEAN FMs support Vietnam to take bloc’s chairmanship
HANOI, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) — Foreign ministers from the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) all support Vietnam’s nomination of one of its deputy foreign ministers as the next ASEAN secretary-general, the Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesperson said here Thursday.
Spokesperson Luong Thanh Nghi said at a regular press briefing that all the ASEAN foreign ministers expressed support to the nomination of Vietnam’s Deputy Foreign Minister Le Luong Minh as ASEAN secretary-general for the 2013-2017 tenure.
The nomination, which was made during the recent 45th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting, will be considered by ASEAN high-ranking officials at the association’s summit slated for November in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
Viet Nam airline fined for inflight bikini show…was it Men Som On pix?
Show flesh and skin on Viet Nam mid air flight featuring Xmer MP Men Som On?
HANOI - A Vietnamese airline has been fined for hosting a mid-flight dance by bikini-clad beauty pageant contestants without first gaining permission, state media said Thursday.
Low-cost carrier VietJet Air was fined $1,000 (S$1,244) by the nation’s aviation authorities for organising the Hawaiian-themed dance to celebrate its maiden flight between Ho Chi Minh City and the tourist hub of Nha Trang, the Tuoi Tre newspaper said.
Five women, all candidates in a local beauty contest, performed the three-minute dance on the August 3 flight while passengers recorded the show on camera phones and later posted clips online, the paper added.
The airline “violated local aviation regulations” by organising “an unapproved show on a flight,” Nguyen Trong Thang, chief inspector of the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam, was quoted as saying in the report.
Thang added the pictures were taken while mobile phones were in flight-safe mode and did not pose any risk.
The incident has stirred public debate in conservative Vietnam after photographs and video clips of the sultry performance spread on the Internet.
Asia Rice-Thai exporters seek Viet, Cambodian rice to meet deals
8/8/2012 Straitstimes, By Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat
Siam rice exporters seek Viet and Khmer rice to meet deals
Bangkok - Demand for low-quality white rice from African buyers has forced Thai exporters to purchase additional stocks from Cambodia and Vietnam to meet orders because domestic rice is in short supply due to a government buying scheme, traders said on Wednesday.The price of 25 per cent broken grade Thai white rice jumped to $545 per tonne on Wednesday, some way above the $520-$530 per tonne being offered recently, although the benchmark 100 per cent B grade was steady at $580, they said.
The government has extended its intervention scheme, paying farmers 15,000 baht ($480) per tonne for paddy, to end-September and is expected to renew it again in October, when harvesting of the main crop is due to start.
The scheme has pushed government rice stocks up to a record high of 17 million tonnes of paddy, or around 10 million tonnes of milled rice – what Thailand exports in normal years.
Due to a lack of broken grade rice on the market, some Thai exporters have had to import some from Cambodia, or even from Vietnam via Cambodia.
“There was some rice coming from neighbouring countries, but some of it was smuggled so there’s no record of how much has been brought in,” said one Thai exporter.
VIETNAMESE PRICES RISE Demand from Thai exporters and hopes for possible orders from countries affected by recent adverse weather helped support Vietnamese prices, traders said.
A drought affecting US corn, low monsoon rain in India and floods in China and the Philippines have pushed up the price of ingredients for feed production, dragging up rice prices, a trader in Ho Chi Minh City said.
“Exporters and trading firms all have started buying, so prices have gone up quickly,” he said.
The 5 per cent broken rice rose to $425-$430 a tonne on Wednesday, free on board Saigon Port, from last week’s $415-$420. The 25 per cent broken rice jumped to $395-$405 a tonne from $375-$380.
“Given the bad weather, India may consider limiting its grain exports and that talk has also fuelled the price gain,”the Ho Chi Minh City trader said. Harvesting of the Mekong Delta’s summer-autumn crop has peaked and will end later this month, meaning no fresh grain supply to weigh on prices in coming weeks.
Hanoi servant,Hun Sen, sit next to Mrs. Hillary Clinton during ASEAN 45th gathering
PHNOM PENH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) — Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen will address the National Assembly (NA) on border issues with Vietnam next Thursday, according to a NA’s press release Saturday.
The press release said that the National Assembly would hold its 8th plenary session of the 4th legislature on Aug. 9 under the presidency of Heng Samrin, NA’s president. One of the agendas in the upcoming session is a verbal clarification to the NA on border demarcation tasks between Cambodia and Vietnam.
The clarification is made at the request of Sam Rainsy Party, the country’s major opposition party.
Hun Sen said Wednesday that he would need four hours straight to explain the issues to the parliament.
The premier’s plan to appear at the National Assembly was unveiled after the opposition party had subsequently accused the current government of national betrayal for ceding land to Vietnam.
“It is serious and unacceptable that they call us ‘traitors’, so I need to explain these issues,” he told a graduation ceremony of more than 2,600 students at the Royal University of Law and Economics on Wednesday.
He said his upcoming remarks would be televised live in all local TVs if possible.
Cambodia shares a 1,270-km border with Vietnam to the east. To date, about 80 percent of the border demarcation has been completed and the two countries have vowed to fully complete it by the end of this year.
US criticizes new China garrison in tense sea…new Cold war begins
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham and Sino FM
AFP, 3/8/2012
The United States accused China of raising tensions through a new military garrison in the South China Sea as it called on all sides to lower tensions in the hotly contested waters.
China announced last week that it was establishing the tiny city of Sansha and a garrison on an island in the disputed Paracel chain, infuriating Vietnam and the Philippines which have accused Beijing of intimidation.
“We are concerned by the increase in tensions in the South China Sea and are monitoring the situation closely,” US State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said in a statement, released on Friday.
“In particular, China’s upgrading of the administrative level of Sansha city and establishment of a new military garrison there covering disputed areas of the South China Sea run counter to collaborative diplomatic efforts to resolve differences and risk further escalating tensions in the region,” he said.
Ventrell also pointed to “confrontational rhetoric” and incidents at sea, saying: “The United States urges all parties to take steps to lower tensions.”
China says it controls much of the South China Sea, but Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam all claim portions. Vietnam and the Philippines have accused China of stepping up harassment at sea.
The United States has rallied behind Southeast Asian nations, expanding military ties with the Philippines and Vietnam. President Barack Obama has decided to send Marines to Australia in a further show of US power in Asia.
The US Senate approved a resolution late Thursday that “strongly urges” all regional nations to exercise self-restraint and to refrain from permanently inhabiting points in the South China Sea until a code of conduct is reached.
The resolution, sponsored by senators from both major parties, declared that the United States was committed ”to assist the nations of Southeast Asia to remain strong and independent.”
During a 2010 visit to Vietnam, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that the United States had a national interest in freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, through which half of world cargo passes.
The State Department statement on Friday reiterated that the United States has an interest in stability and “unimpeded lawful commerce” in the South China Sea but that Washington does not take a position on rival claims.
China also has separate disputes with US ally Japan in the East China Sea, an issue discussed by Japanese Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto on a visit Friday to Washington.
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, addressing a joint news conference with Morimoto, voiced hope for further progress in a code of conduct on the South China Sea.
“The last thing we want is to have direct confrontation in the South China Sea with regards to jurisdictional issues,” Panetta said.
“Those should be resolved peacefully, and they should be resolved pursuant to a code of conduct. And the United States will do whatever we can to work with Japan and others to ensure that that is the approach we take,” he said.
Southeast Asian nations faced deep divisions last month during annual talks in Cambodia, preventing them from issuing a customary joint communique and holding up progress on reaching a code of conduct with China.
The code of conduct would aim to set rules to reduce the chances of a spat over fishing, shipping rights or oil and gas exploration tipping into an armed conflict.
Robert Manning, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former US government strategist, said that China may have set up the garrison as a way to counter the recent US military focus on Asia.
“To be sure, China is well aware that its assertiveness is not well received in East Asia, and tends to lead smaller nations to tilt to the US to balance China,” Manning wrote in an essay released by his think tank.
“But Beijing seems to be calculating that despite the more robust US military posture in the region, China can throw its weight around and the US response will be limited to diplomatic reprimand,” he wrote.
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia meet to boost triangle area development
HANOI, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) — The fourth conference of the National Assembly (NA)’s Committee for External Relations of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam (CLV) opened in Vietnam’s central Nghe An province, some 260 km south of capital Hanoi on Thursday.
Themed “The role of NA in supporting development in the triangle area,” the conference aims at strengthening and promoting cooperative relations for the socio-economic development in border areas.
Addressing the conference, Uong Chu Luu, vice chairman of Vietnam’s NA said that the conference is an opportunity to discuss and share experiences on the development of the triangle area and set cooperation directions for the related agencies.
Speaking highly of the role of three countries’ NAs Luu proposed to continue revise the establishment of the Inter-NA Committee in order to supervise and support the implementation of the policies and agreements reached by the three countries’NAs.
During the conference, heads of Laos and Cambodia delegations shared the views that the CLV development in triangle area is of great significance in such fields as society, economy, security and national defense for all three countries.
The CLV development triangle area consists of 13 provinces including five in Vietnam, four in Laos and four in Cambodia.
PM to address border issues
Prime Minister Hun Sen vowed yesterday to set the record straight on the demarcation of the Vietnam border, an issue that flared in June when the government announced it would cede two villages to Vietnam.
Hun Sen spent much of his speech to 2,500 university graduates at the National Institute of Education mocking the “storm-in-a-clay-pot” Democratic Movement for National Rescue (DMNR) and taking aim at the Sam Rainsy Party.
But his announcement that he had accepted the SRP’s invitation to address the National Assembly about the border issues – something he will do over the course of four hours – was exactly what the opposition wanted to hear.
“I will go to answer questions. I have sent my letter to the National Assembly, but I am still waiting for their response,” he said, adding that border issue “must be clear”.
Despite his commitment, the prime minister objected to opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s pre-commune election comments that a vote for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party would be traitorous to Cambodia.
“It is a very serious [allegation] that CPP voters are traitors,” Hun Sen said, adding that 61 per cent of people had voted for the party.
Tensions over the border demarcation flared on June 17 when the government announced it had no choice but to give two undisclosed villages to Vietnam.
This would mean keeping two other villagers in Kampong Cham province that the former Indochina colonial administration had said belonged to Vietnam, it said.
The “final” Vietnam border post was erected just days later, despite more than 20 remaining to be planted in the ground.
SRP lawmaker Son Chhay wrote a letter to National Assembly President Heng Samrin in June inviting the premier to answer questions related to the border and the plans to cede the two villages.
The letter also called on Hun Sen to explain the positioning of border post 314, between Kampot province and Vietnam, which the SRP claims had cut Cambodians from their land.
SRP lawmaker and spokesman Yim Sovann said yesterday his party would welcome Hun Sen to the National Assembly.
“We will wait and see what he says. We have a lot of questions related to the villages disconnected from Cambodia and Vietnam. We would like the government to answer those questions,” he said.
Sovann said the SRP wanted a frank and open discussion on the topic rather than the prime minister talking for four hours.
“We want the National Assembly to allow questions and debate – in the past, we have not been allowed this.”
Fears that Cambodian land along the border is being swallowed up by Vietnam have played a central role in the SRP’s campaigning in recent years.
Rainsy lives in self-imposed exile in France after being sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for pulling up a border demarcation post and publishing a Google map claiming to show land Vietnam has encroached upon.
Hun Sen said yesterday that the party Rainsy had formed through a merger with the Human Rights Party was much ado about nothing.
“The storm is in a clay pot; be careful or the clay pot will be broken,” he said during his speech to the graduates.
“It has not affected [the CPP] at all. Democratic Movement for National Rescue. Rescue whom now?”
Hun Sen said Cambodia didn’t need to be rescued, adding that the CPP has nothing to fear from the new party.
“A loss plus a loss equals a loss,” he said in a veiled reference to the two parties’ commune election performances.
The prime minister also mocked the DMNR’s plans to lobby abroad for Rainsy’s return.
“They [have sought] international pressure. What pressure? What is the pressure?” Hun Sen asked, maintaining that the opposition leader was fairly tried and sentenced. “What did they create the law for? The guilty individual must be convicted.”
Sovann said he would let the Cambodian people respond to Hun Sen’s remarks at the 2013 election, but said the prime minister’s reaction was a sign the DMNR had rattled the ruling party.
“I want to confirm that His Excellency [Sam Rainsy] is a hero in the Khmer people’s heart,” Sovann said. “Normally, if [DMNR] did not have any political influence, politicians would not react. I believe that this merger has a lot of political influence.”
(Phnom Penh Post)
DPM Men Sam An Received by Vietnamese Leaders…អូនធើតាមបងណាល់តើ?
24 july 2012
Ms.MEN ON SOM on mission possible. Hanoi eyed on Hun Sen replacement if border deal broke
Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Assembly-Senate Relations and Inspection Ms. Men Sam An has been on a visit in Vietnam from July 22 to 25.
On July 23 in Hanoi, Ms. Men Sam An was received by Vietnamese Prime Minister H.E. Nguyen Tan Dung, according to Vietnam News Agency (VNA).
On the occasion, the Vietnamese premier affirmed that Vietnam is always a reliable and faithful neighbor of Cambodia.
Vietnam will join Cambodian efforts to develop bilateral ties, ranging from politics and diplomacy to economics, security, defense and culture, he stressed.
H.E. Nguyen Tan Dung described the visit as a practical contribution to fostering the friendship between the two nations.
After congratulating Cambodia on the achievements it has made in recent times, he suggested the two sides to continue coordinating the organization of the Vietnam-Cambodia Friendship Year 2012, as well as effectively implementing their cooperation agreements.
For her part, Ms. Men Sam An said her visit is to enhance bilateral cooperation in the inspection sector.
She expressed her wish that Cambodia will continue to receive support and learn experience from Vietnam in fighting corruption, handling people’s petitions and dealing with complaints and accusations.
The Cambodian Deputy PM suggested the two sides continue strengthening and popularizing their friendship and cooperation and prevent any negative opinions sowing divisions between the two nations.
Earlier on the same day, Ms. Men Sam An held talks with Vietnamese Inspector General H.E. Huynh Phong Tranh, reported VNA.
H.E. Huynh Phong Tranh shared with Ms. Men Sam An experiences in inspection work, dealing with complaints and fighting corruption.
He described the visit by Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An as a vivid manifestation of the friendship and fruitful cooperation between the two countries’ inspection sectors, following the signing of an agreement in March this year.
He also said the visit is expected to lay a foundation for new cooperative agreements between the two sides.
In reply, Ms. Men Sam An thanked the Vietnamese government Inspectorate for its support for her ministry in training human resources.
She said her visit aims to further strengthen relations between the two agencies in particular and the two countries in general.
Vietnamese leaders meet Cambodian NA President
HANOI, July 23 (Xinhua) — Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung met with Cambodian National Assembly (NA) President Heng Samrin in capital Hanoi on Monday.
During the meeting, President Sang hailed the achievements of socio-economic development of Cambodia in recent years, which contributed to enhancing the position of Cambodia in international arena.
Sang expressed his pleasure at the Vietnam-Cambodia fine cooperation in fields of defense, culture, economy and investment, adding that the visit of the Cambodian NA President Heng Samrin is of great significance in promoting the traditional friendship relations between the two countries.
About the outcomes of the talks between the two NA delegations, Sang believed that the agreement on cooperation between the two NAs signed during Heng Samrin’s visit will contribute to further strengthening cooperation between the two legislatures as well as the closely ties between the two countries.
Cambodian NA President Heng Samrin, for his part, expressed his pleasure to visit Vietnam on the occasion of 45th anniversary of establishment of diplomacy relations between Vietnam and Cambodia.
He believed that the Vietnam-Cambodia traditional friendly relations will be further developed for the sake of the two nations and for peace in the region and the world.
On the same day, Vietnamese Prime Minister (PM) Nguyen Tan Dung met with Cambodian NA President Heng Samrin, during which PM Dung hoped the two sides to continue effectively implementing the cooperation agreements signed by the two leaders, promoting economic, trade and investment, education, healthcare and cultural cooperation, especially in border areas.
Vietnam congratulated Cambodia’s efforts on its position as chairman of the ASEAN in 2012 and also supports Cambodia as a candidate to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, Dung affirmed.
PM Dung proposed the two sides to work closely to complete all work on border demarcation and marker planting soon. Dung also asked the Cambodian NA to support Vietnamese businesses in Cambodia, promoting the Vietnam-Cambodia traditional friendship.
Heng Samrin expressed his belief that with the joint efforts of the both sides, the traditional friendly cooperative relations between Vietnam and Cambodia would be strengthened.
Heng Samrin is paying an official visit to Vietnam from July 20- 25 at the invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Sinh Hung to promote legislative ties.
