The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry released information on its website last Thursday, initially in Vietnamese only, detailing the agreements ironed out in the meetings, focusing specifically on the exchange of land between both countries.
Both Le Hoai Trung, the deputy minister of Foreign Affairs for Vietnam, and Va Kim Hong, chairman of the border committee for Cambodia, signed off on the agreement along with various ministers from both countries.
Cambodian border committee officials attempted to downplay the news, saying the two sides had yet to actually discuss which plots of land would be transferred to Vietnamese control and vice versa. They only decided to allow a “group of experts” to study the situation and follow up with them.
Mr. Kim Hong did not respond to requests for comment yesterday, but told local media outlets that Cambodia and Vietnam have yet to transfer any land between each other.
“We have nothing to exchange. We just talked about the exchange in principle, because we have had this principle for a long time since the MoU in 2011, which Prime Minister Hun Sen said at the National Assembly,” he said.
“So nothing is new, it’s just a problem that we need to fix by exchanging some land in the provinces that we’ve seen, but we have not exchanged it because we have not agreed with each other yet.”
He said an exchange of land along the border would only be possible if the Vietnamese government “complied” with the terms and conditions of the agreement and held a neutral study first.
This is far from the first time Cambodia and Vietnam have either exchanged land or discussed the topic. In 2012, Cambodia negotiated with Vietnam to keep Thlok Trach village and Anlong Chrey village, the hometown of ruling party stalwart Heng Samrin, in exchange for two unnamed villages that are now Vietnamese.
The Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) pounced on the issue and harshly criticized the government for using Cambodia’s territorial integrity as a trading chip.
Yet in June last year, Mr. Hun Sen said the Kingdom may have to change some of its borders in some areas to accommodate Cambodian farmers who have lived and worked on land for decades which may not technically be inside the country’s borders.
CNRP spokesman Yim Sovann declined to comment, telling reporters to ask the opposition member from Kampong Cham province, Mao Monyvan. But Mr. Monyvan could not be reached for comment.
Independent analyst Meas Ny said the entire border situation was too murky and the government was not being transparent enough with how it is handling the border demarcation process.
They take action against any protesters, activists or politicians who raise the issue of the border, yet are duplicitous and mysterious when asked of their own plans for the border with Vietnam, he said.
“The current exchange can become another issue that will receive criticism from people if the government is not more transparent, and there may be even more losses,” he said. “As citizens stated, be careful about exchanging Khmer villages and Khmer land.
“It is not an exchange of Khmer villages for Vietnamese land, but an exchange of Khmer land for Khmer land that will allow us to claim that we are beneficial.”
He added that the situation around Mr. Samrin’s home village was emblematic of the issue many have with the border demarcation process and any potential village trades.
“We have had it for a long time and they didn’t accuse it of being a Vietnamese village in the past. So why does it happen now?” he asked.
“We look at the border between Cambodia and Vietnam and it was made when Vietnam had influence over Cambodia. Cambodia at that time was prepared by the Vietnamese, so it cannot be 100 percent accurate.”
Many have been critical of the government’s handling of the border with Vietnam, particularly of their inability to stop Vietnam from constructing buildings on Cambodian land without their consent.
Despite Cambodia denying Vietnam permission to build in Rattanakiri province and sending 24 diplomatic letters to the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry asking for construction to be stopped, soldiers from across the border have continued to dig ponds and build structures in the area.
The land, near the border post in Pok Nhai commune across from Vietnam’s Gia Lai province, was designated as no-man’s land in a January 17, 1995, agreement between the two countries until defined borders were created.
But for more than a year now, residents, police and provincial government officials have reported non-stop construction by Vietnamese soldiers. Last April at least eight ponds, approximately four by eight meters wide and three to four meters deep, were dug by Vietnamese soldiers in the O’Koma area near a border protection office in Pok Nhai commune.
Government officials said they would handle the issue diplomatically, but many nearby residents say the Vietnamese soldiers continue to dig deeper into the ponds.
Mr. Kim Hong in August confirmed that the Vietnamese had in fact violated the agreement between the two countries, yet there has been no change in the relationship between both nations militarily, financially or diplomatically.
Chhay Thy, the Adhoc provincial coordinator in Rattanakiri province, said it has been a year since people reported seeing Vietnamese soldiers digging ponds and yet they have repeatedly ignored directives from the government to stop.
The actions, he said, show that Vietnam is not simply confused about the borderline, but willfully ignoring Cambodia’s sovereignty.
“We have forbidden them from doing it for a month. But now they [the Vietnamese soldiers] have finished the foundations and are working on the shape,” he said.
In a closed-door meeting at the Council of Ministers in August, Mr. Kim Hong and Mr. Hoai Trung met and discussed a number of contentious issues related to the Cambodia-Vietnam border, including mapping assistance from France.
The two sides discussed the technical assistance needed from France in mapping the border, hoping to use their “Bonne” maps of the region and their high-tech mapping instruments to settle a number of disputed areas.
But even the message they plan to send to France is causing friction between the two sides, as Cambodia believes that only two of the seven disputed areas along the border require France to step in, while Vietnam thinks France should arbitrate decisions for all seven of the areas being debated.
Last year, much was made over attempts to demarcate the border with Vietnam. The opposition claimed the government had openly ceded land to Vietnam by using unverified border maps and in June last year, politicians and supporters went to the Vietnamese border in Svay Rieng province.
That trip led to a scuffle between local Vietnamese residents and Cambodians, resulting in multiple injuries on both sides.
The land border between Cambodia and Vietnam is 1,270 kilometers long. In March, National Police officials claimed that 89 percent of the demarcation was completed after they planted 282 border posts from a total of 314 along the border.
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