Lam Dong and Mondulkiri Work Together to Build a Peaceful and Sustainable Border

Lam Dong's border length stretches approximately 141 km and adjoins Mondulkiri Province of Cambodia. Implementing the principle of “good neighborliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation, and long-term sustainability,” the Provincial Border Guard Command has effectively maintained border foreign affairs activities and closely coordinated with the border protection forces of the neighboring province to manage and safeguard territorial sovereignty and maintain security and public order.

Notably, bilateral trade has continued to grow, with total import–export turnover through the Bu P’rang–Dak Dam and Dak Peur–Bu Sara border gates exceeding USD 947 million. Recently, the two provinces jointly organized a trade fair in Mondulkiri Province, featuring 60 booths and attracting over 5,000 visitors, thereby connecting businesses, promoting products, and expanding markets.

In conjunction with economic growth, effective measures have been taken for border management and security. Political security and social order in the border regions have remained stable, with no significant incidents reported. Collaboration between the border protection agencies of both provinces has become increasingly close and substantive, including regular information exchanges, joint patrols, and coordinated efforts to combat illegal crossings, smuggling, trade fraud, drug-related offenses, human trafficking, and the transmission of diseases across borders.

Major General Ham Bo Na Rel, Commander of the Mondulkiri Provincial Gendarmerie Command, praised the successful collaboration between the two forces in fighting crime and ensuring security and order along the border. He also expressed gratitude to the Lam Dong Provincial Border Guard Command for providing materials and equipment during COVID-19 prevention and control efforts, which further solidified the camaraderie and friendly relations between the two parties.

Since 2016, the Provincial Border Guard Command has consistently supported 12 underprivileged students in Mondulkiri Province through the "Stepping Stones to School" initiative, providing each student with VND 500,000 per month. Border guard posts have collaborated to enhance public awareness campaigns on both sides of the border, promoting strict adherence to border regulations and agreements, increasing awareness of border and marker protection, proactively preventing crime, and countering misleading and divisive narratives that threaten the friendship between Vietnam and Cambodia.

Furthermore, Lam Dong Province has bolstered Party, State, and people-to-people diplomacy by facilitating delegation exchanges and signing cooperation agreements. In recent years, the province has handed over five projects to Mondulkiri Province, with a combined investment exceeding VND 28 billion, and organized 13 medical missions to provide free medical check-ups and medications to local residents, valued at around VND 2.9 billion. The armed forces from both provinces have maintained close cooperation to ensure security and public order, creating favorable conditions for trade, family visits, and interpersonal exchanges at border crossings.

Colonel Nguyen Thanh Dinh, Commander of the Provincial Border Guard Command, remarked that the results of cooperation in recent years clearly reflect the shared understanding, responsibility, and strong commitment of both parties in establishing a peaceful, stable, friendly, cooperative, and sustainably developed border between Vietnam and Cambodia.

In the upcoming period, both sides have agreed to intensify the exchange of information, enhance collaboration in preventing, combating, and effectively addressing all forms of crime; increase legal awareness and education for those living in border regions; and work together in disaster response, disease prevention and control, as well as humanitarian aid according to practical circumstances, which will help strengthen the traditional bonds of solidarity and friendship between Lam Dong and Mondulkiri specifically, and between Vietnam and Cambodia as a whole.