On October 11, 2020, local time, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who was paying an official visit to Cambodia, met with Hor Namhong, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Co-chair of the China-Cambodia Intergovernmental Coordination Committee, in Phnom Penh.

Wang Yi said that Cambodia is the first stop of his Southeast Asia tour as Chinese Foreign Minister because the two countries are iron friends and both in a community with a shared future. The pandemic has not affected our friendship. Our bond instead has become stronger due to our joint effort to contain the pandemic. China is willing to work with Cambodia to further cement the political trust, enhance the mutual support, and facilitate the development of bilateral relationship through co-planning in the post-pandemic period.

Wang Yi said that China-Cambodia mutually beneficial cooperation on all fronts has maintained strong momentum. Both sides reached another series of agreements in a recent meeting of the Committee and formulated a new list of areas for cooperation, which is being put in place in an orderly manner. The mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Cambodia is an all-round one, covering almost all areas. China will continue to support Cambodia to fight the pandemic by giving priority to providing vaccines to and buying more agricultural products from Cambodia. China's investment in Cambodia is growing amid pandemic, accelerating the industrialization process in Cambodia and improving its capacity for independent development. China and Cambodia are not only pressing on with cooperation in the traditional sectors, but also exploring new growth areas in the emerging sectors like AI, 5G, big data, and cloud computing, etc. China will continue to carry out relevant cooperation projects according to the needs of Cambodia, with a focus on the projects concerning people's standard of living. China is going to sign the FTA with Cambodia, which is the first of its kind for Cambodia. The agreement will speed up the development of trade between the two countries and play a positive role in helping Cambodia address the challenges emerged in the post-pandemic period.

Hor Namhong said Cambodia speaks highly of the great achievements made by China in fighting the pandemic and extended its appreciation to China for providing medical supplies and sending a medical team to Cambodia to combat the pandemic. Cambodia would not have achieved such an outcome in the pandemic prevention and control without China's support. Cambodia would like to cooperate with China in the vaccine development as the next step and fully implement the ''fast lane'' and the ''green lane'' for the flow of people and goods in order to help the economic and social advancement of both countries. Cambodia is prepared to work with China to put in place the action plan on building the China-Cambodia community with a shared future, which will bring the bilateral relationship to a higher level. The list drawn up by the Intergovernmental Coordination Committee about the cooperation in a vast range of areas will play an important guiding role in deepening the partnership between China and Cambodia. Cambodia thanked China for its help with infrastructure building and importing quality agriculture products from Cambodia and hoped that China will help Cambodia formulate an industrial development plan. The FTA signed by the two countries has far-reaching significance politically and economically. The two sides can enhance the exchange in various forms across all sectors, deepen the friendship-cities ties, and solidify the social foundation on which our friendship is built.