Cambodia and Vietnam have signed a 2020 cooperation plan to continue efforts to stop cross-border crimes and increase security cooperation.

Minister of Interior Sar Kheng signed the agreement with Vietnamese Minister of Public Security To Lam during a visit to Vietnam over the weekend.

“Both sides signed a cooperation plan for 2020 and agreed to pay attention to some important issues, such as taking serious action to prevent and crack down on all kinds of cross-border crimes, especially drug trafficking, forest crimes and natural resource crimes in the provinces bordering both countries.

“We will continue to take serious action to prevent all illegal border crossing. We will continue our cooperation to finalise border demarcation by solving remaining issues based on mutual understanding,” a ministry statement said on Saturday.

Sar Kheng posted on his Facebook page on Saturday saying the plan for this year also focuses on cooperation between the police of both countries to maintain security and public order.

In October last year, the armed forces of both countries agreed to strengthen ties and be more active along the border to eliminate crime.

Former Cambodia National Rescue Party lawmaker Ou Chanrath, said expressed hope that the cooperation plan will bring about positive changes.

“We have not yet seen efficiency in the fight against forest crimes and national resource crimes, or against drug trafficking along the border. This is because law enforcement is still limited and the number of officers is also limited,” he said.