China, Cambodia to forge ahead with cooperation, ties

China and Cambodia signed a joint communique here Thursday during Chinese President Xi Jinping's ongoing visit to the Southeast Asian country, pledging to further strengthen bilateral cooperation and traditional friendship.

During his visit, Xi met with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and Prime Minister Hun Sen, respectively. The two sides conducted in-depth exchange of views on further deepening the bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership as well as international and regional issues of common concern, and reached broad consensus, said the document.

China and Cambodia agreed to accelerate the alignment of China's Belt and Road Initiative and the 13th Five-Year Plan with Cambodia's Rectangular Strategy and Industrial Development Policy 2015-2025, while working to raise bilateral trade volume to 5 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, the statement said.

A total of 31 cooperation documents were signed on a wide range of fields covering economy, technology, infrastructure, efforts to curb human trafficking, tax and maritime cooperation, among others, according to it. China pledged more investment and cooperation with Cambodia on such fields as energy, telecommunication, agriculture, industry and tourism.

The Cambodian side congratulated China on successfully hosting the Group of Twenty Summit in Hangzhou last month, and praised China's active contribution to global economic growth and sub-regional development.

The two countries also agreed to further consolidate coordination under multilateral frameworks including the United Nations, Asia-Europe Meeting, East Asia cooperation and Lancang-Mekong Cooperation group while maintaining close and effective communication on issues concerning each other's major interests, said the document.

The two sides believed that the South China Sea issue is not a problem between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which should be resolved peacefully through friendly consultations and negotiations by directly concerned sovereign states.

Meanwhile, China reaffirmed in the document its firm support to Cambodian's efforts on maintaining national sovereignty, independence and political stability.

Cambodia also renewed its adherence to the one-China policy. Recognizing the government of the People's Republic of China as the sole legal government representing the whole of China, the Cambodian side opposes "Taiwan independence" in all forms while holding that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory, said the document.

China and Cambodia should jointly safeguard and carry forward their traditional friendship forged and cultivated by Chinese and Cambodian leaders of previous generations, including Chairman Mao Zedong, Premier Zhou Enlai and Cambodian King Father Norodom Sihanouk, the statement said.

Under new international and regional situation, the two countries will enhance strategic communication, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation and constantly enrich their comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, so as to better serve their peoples and contribute to peace, stability and prosperity of the region and the whole world at large, it said.

Xi arrived here Thursday noon for a state visit to Cambodia. It is his first trip to the Southeast Asian nation as president. In 2009, he paid an official visit to the kingdom as vice president. Endi