Leaders of the Cambodian People’s Party ( CPP ) and the Communist Party of Vietnam ( CPV ) have pledged to more than double annual two-way trade to US$20 billion “in the near future” — up from US$7.8 billion last year.    

CPP president Hun Sen and CPV general secretary To Lam made the pledge during a meeting on the sidelines of a trilateral summit with Lao People’s Revolutionary Party general secretary Thongloun Sisoulith in Phnom Penh on February 6.

The two sides, according to a joint statement by Cambodia and Vietnam, “pledged to continue improving the investment and business environment” in sectors like telecommunications, agro-processing, renewable energy, infrastructure, digital transformation, finance and tourism. Other priority areas include supply chains and logistics.

The two sides also committed, the statement reads, “to endeavour to reach the bilateral trade target of US$20 billion in the near future to match the two countries’ potential, scope and comprehensiveness of cooperation.”

Vietnam is Cambodia’s biggest trading partner after China and the United States.

Exports to Vietnam, according to Cambodian customs data, grew 0.8% from a year earlier to $US3.7 billion in 2025, while imports from Vietnam fell 2.5% to $US4.1 billion.

Lam’s visit to Cambodia, preceded by a trip to Laos, according to an editorial published on February 7 in the CPV’s newspaper Nhan Dan, “reaffirmed a strong political determination to elevate Vietnam’s relations with Laos and Cambodia to a new height, meeting the demands of the times and opening broader prospects for cooperation in the new period. […] Relations among the three parties, the three states and the peoples of the three countries are of strategic and long-term significance.”