Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia Hun Sen at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, capital of China, Feb 10, 2023. Photo:Xinhua

China and Cambodia released a joint statement on Saturday, the last day of Cambodian Prime Minister Hung Sen's visit to China, in which the two countries vow to build a high-quality, high-level and high-standard China-Cambodia Community with a Shared Future in the new era, and to carry forward the most treasured ironclad friendship over coming generations.

Both sides agreed to develop a "Diamond Hexagon" cooperation framework which highlights six priority areas, including political cooperation, production capacity, agriculture, energy, security and humanity.

In this joint statement, the future direction of China-Cambodia relations is pointed out and its political guiding role is strengthened, international relations experts told Global Times on Saturday.

According to the joint statement, both sides spoke highly of China-Cambodia impregnable ironclad friendship, which has been carefully nurtured by the leaders of elder generation of both countries and has been constantly growing from strength to strength in the last 65 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties.

"High-quality, high-level and high-standard" are used to describe the goal of building the partnership, reflecting a major step forward in relations between China and Cambodia, and a tangible "Diamond Hexagon" cooperation framework" that is an important part of the future relationship, observers said.

The joint statement has a guiding role and provides practical guidance for the two countries on how to achieve this goal." Ge Hongliang, director of the China-ASEAN Maritime Security Research Center at Guangxi University for Nationalities, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Bilateral and multilateral cooperation between China and Cambodia under the Belt and Road Initiative and Lancang-Mekong Cooperation framework have already matured, and advancing the China-Cambodia community with a shared future points to the directions for future cooperation between those structures, he said.

In this joint statement, political cooperation, production capacity, agriculture, energy, security and humanity are cited as important areas for the development of China-Cambodia relations, systematically explaining the plan of building the high-quality, high-level and high-standard China-Cambodia Community with a Shared future in the new era. In addition, China's epidemic prevention policy optimization was also specifically mentioned, which means a further revival of people-to-people exchanges between the two sides is expected, Ge said.

"These plans are very relevant and in line with the development needs of Southeast Asian countries," he said. "This means a comprehensive institutional upgrade of cooperation between the two sides at the levels of political security, economic trade, investment and humanistic exchanges."

In addition to presenting plans for the future development, the joint statement likewise gave high praise to past China-Cambodia relations, describing it as impregnable ironclad friendship, and vowing to carry it forward through coming generations.

Both sides agreed to enhance engagements between the military of the two countries at all level, give full play to the role of the cooperation mechanism between the two militaries, strengthen cross-service exchanges and joint exercises and joint training, as well as strengthen coordination between the two sides on multilateral security affairs.

"The cooperation and friendship between the two sides is not only reflected at the level of economic and humanistic exchanges. More importantly, at the political level, the two countries have always supported and understood each other," Ge told Global Times.

Both sides recognized the common values for all humanity of peace, development, fairness, justice democracy and freedom, and stood ready to safeguard the international system with the UN as its core, the international order based on international law, and the basic norms governing international relations, according to the joint statement. The both sides also sides agreed on the adherence to true multilateralism, firmly supporting the open, transparent, inclusive, non-discriminatory and rules-based multilateral trading system.

According to the statement, both sides believed that with joint efforts of ASEAN countries and China, the situation in the South China Sea has maintained overall stability. The two countries call on relevant parties to carry forward the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) fully and effectively, to deepen maritime cooperation, and reach an early conclusion on a substantive and effective Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) on the basis of mutual consensus. "Any attempt to use the South China Sea issue to undermine regional peace and mutual trust are doomed to fail," it said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with visiting Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Sen on Friday at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, realizing an "appointment made three years ago" and underscoring the ironclad friendship between the two countries, which celebrate the 65th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations.

At the beginning of 2020, when some countries arranged for their diplomats and citizens to be evacuated from China and halted international flights during the country's nationwide fight against the COVID, Hun Sen's "opposite direction" visit sent a clear message of solidarity with the Chinese people.

And China has now fulfilled its "three-year promise," hosting Hun Sen again after three years, once again reflecting the importance China attaches to the relationship between the two countries and the honesty that drives it.

"China and Cambodia share a special, intergenerational friendship," Ge said. "The topic of how to pass on such a valuable asset has great value in itself."

According to the joint statement, the two sides also announced the launch of the "China-Cambodia Friendship Year" events to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and the Friendship Year.