Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh (R) and Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen at the event. (Photo: VNA)

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen has expressed his gratitude to the Vietnamese Party, State, and people for supporting him from the early days of his journey to save Cambodia from the Pol Pot genocidal regime.

PM Hun Sen was received by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Vietnam’s southern border province of Binh Phuoc on June 20 to visit Loc Ninh district’s Loc Tan entrance road, where he first set his foot on the Vietnamese land 45 years ago, beginning his national salvation journey.

As part of the visit, the two PMs joined a tree planting ceremony. They also met and talked with local residents, where PM Hun Sen underscored Vietnamese people’s pure, sincere, and righteous international spirit and the special solidarity and friendship between Vietnam and Cambodia.

He said his first meal after arriving in Loc Ninh saved his life. Without Vietnamese people’s assistance, there would have been no Hun Sen and Cambodia as they are today, the Cambodian PM stated.

Lauding growing bilateral relations between the nations across all fields in the past time, the Cambodian leader said the two countries' infrastructure has been smoothly connected in this border area and they agreed to build it into a symbol of their relations via promoting bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, tourism, and culture.

The two PMs join a tree planting ceremony (Photo: VNA)

PM Hun Sen said he believed that the Cambodia-Vietnam ties will be sustainable forever.

On June 20, 1977, after crossing the Cambodia - Vietnam border and arriving in Binh Phuoc, Hun Sen, who was then a lieutenant colonel of Region 21 in eastern Cambodia, and his comrades decided to seek help from Vietnam to overthrow the Pol Pot genocidal regime to regain peace for his homeland.

Thanks to the Vietnamese Party, State, and people’s assistance, they took gradual steps to set up the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation and, together with Vietnamese volunteer soldiers, completely defeat the genocidal regime on January 7, 1979, saving millions of Cambodians from the genocidal disaster.